
Class ^7^/7 . 

Book . Cr^Af3 



(jopyri§litE^_ 



CDPVRJGHT DEPOSm 



CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 




Q.A. ^,>^*<.. 



CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 



PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY THE 

CORPORATION AND THE ASSOCIATE ALUMNI OF 

THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL 

COLLEGE 




CAMBRIDGE 

Printed at The Riverside Press 
1917 






COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY FREDERICK TUCKERMAN 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



/ 



OCT 13 i9l7 






TEACHERS SHALL SHINE 

AS THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE FIRMAMENT; 

AND THEY THAT LEAD MANY TO TRUTH 

AS THE STARS FOR EVER AND EVER 

{From the inscription on Fichte's monument in Berlin) 



Committee of publication 

FBEDERICK TUCKEKMAN 

JOSEPH B. LINDSEY 
CHARLES WELLINGTON 



CONTENTS 

I. Descent and Early Manhood (1827-1857) 1 

II. First Years in America (1857-1868) 18 

III. The Call to Amherst (1868-1882) 28 

IV. Investigations at the College 44 
V. The Experiment Station 70 

VI. Later Years 97 

Letters of Friedrich Wohleb 109 

Appendix 137 

Abbreviations of Foreign Publications 139 

List of Published Writings 141 

Notices of Charles A. Goessmann 173 

Chronology 175 

Index 181 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

ChaSles a. Goessmann, about 1895 (photogravure) Frontispiece 

Fhitzlar from the West 4 

GOTTINGEN FROM THE EaST 6 

Wohler's Laboratory in Goessmann's Time 10 

wohleb and his advanced students, 1856 14 

In the Syracuse Laboratory 24 

Charles A. Goessmann, about 1875 30 

The Experiment Station 70 

Friedrich Wohler 110 

A Letter of Friedrich Wohler (facaimile) 130 



CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 



CHAPTER I 

DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 
1827-1857 

Charles Anthony Goessmann, the eminent chem- 
ist, the broad-minded student of Nature, the lovable 
man, ended his life of unceasing and fruitful work on 
the 1st of September 1910, in the eighty-fourth year 
of his age. 

He was one of the notable group of European scien- 
tists who, some three generations ago, found a home in 
the United States. Conspicuous among these were 
Engelmann the botanist, Agassiz the naturalist, Pour- 
tales the zoologist, Guyot the geologist and physi- 
ographer, Lesquereux the palaeobotanist and bryolo- 
gist, Genth the mineralogist, and Goessmann the 
chemist. 

The Goessmanns, it is said, came originally from 
Spain, where the name was spelled Guzman. x\bout 
1520 they passed into Germany, in the train of the 
Emperor Charles V, and became seated in Hesse. They 
were land-owners from the first, and not a few entered 
the Church and the army. The branch from which 
Dr. Goessmann sprang had long been settled in the 
ancient town of Fulda, the seat of a famous monastery 
founded by Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and 
selected by him as the place of his burial. Joseph 



2 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

Goessmann of Fulda and later of Fritzlar, grandfather 
of Charles Anthony, was a judge of the higher court 
of Electoral Hesse, lay administrator of the diocese of 
Fulda, and a man of much influence in his day. He 
was on intimate terms of friendship with Georg Fried- 
rich Heinrich, reigning Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont, 
great-grandfather of the present Queen of Holland, 
and the little summer-house in his garden at Fritzlar, 
where the Prince and he played their weekly game of 
chess and drank their coffee, may still be seen. 

The wife of Judge Goessmann was Fraulein Kaiser, 
a woman of rare mental vigour and brilliancy. Of her 
three brothers, one established the chair of social law 
(now political economy) at the University of Graz; 
another became vicar-general of the diocese of Fulda; 
and a third was an officer in the imperial army. The 
latter, wounded at the battle of Wagram, was raised 
by the Emperor to honorary life-membership in the 
Noble Imperial Guard of Austria as a reward for singu- 
lar bravery and courage. The three daughters of Judge 
Goessmann were known to their contemporaries as the 
'three beautiful sisters.' Two of them became ladies- 
in-waiting at the court of the Electoral Princess of 
Hesse-Cassel, and married respectively Baron von 
Mumm and Baron von Borke, officers in the German 
army. 

Heinrich Goessmann, son of Joseph and father of 
Charles Anthony, was bom 30 March 1799, at Fritzlar, 
Hesse-Cassel, and passed much of his life there. In his 
youth, with his elder brother Philip, he served as a 
volunteer in the war against Napoleon in 1815. A 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 3 

graduate in medicine of the University of Marburg in 
1820, he numbered among his fellow-students Friedrich 
Wohler, the celebrated chemist and discoverer of 
organic chemical synthesis,^ with whom he formed a 
warm and lasting friendship. 

From Marburg he proceeded to Wurzburg, where 
two years were spent at the University and hospital, 
and where he enjoyed the instruction of the Natur- 
philosoph Ignatius Dollinger, the founder of embry- 
ology, teacher of Agassiz and von Baer, and father of 
Dr. Johann von Dollinger of Munich, the leader of the 
Old Catholics. Dr. Goessmann subsequently became 
Kreisphysikus or district physician and health oflScer 
in Hesse-Cassel, and in recognition of his services was 
made a medical councillor by Emperor William I. In 
addition to this distinction the University of Wurzburg 
conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of 
Medicine. He died at Fritzlar, 22 February 1880. 

The life and work of Charles Anthony Goessmann 
falls naturally into three well-defined periods. The 
first period ended in 1857 with his departure from 
Gottingen; the second, and shortest, terminated in 
1868 with the call to Amherst; and the third comprised 
his two-score years of service here as Professor in the 
College and Director of Research. During the first 
period he made his most important researches and dis- 
coveries in theoretical chemistry, organic and analy- 
tic. The second period was marked by investigations 

^ 'The first synthesis of an organic compound, that of urea, achieved 
more than a quarter of a centiuy ago by the illustrious Wohler, will, for 
simplicity and elegance of the successive reactions employed, ever remain 
the model of synthetical processes.' — A. W. Hofmann in 1863. 



4 CHAKLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

in technical and industrial chemistry, particularly in 
its relations to the sugar and salt industries. The third 
and last period was devoted almost entirely to agri- 
cultural chemistry, a branch of chemical science in 
which he was a leader in this country. 

Karl Anton Goessmann, third and youngest son of 
the four children of Geheimer Medizinalrath Dr. 
Heinrich Goessmann and Helena Henslinger-Boediger 
his wife, was born on the 13th of June 1827, at Naum- 
burg, in the electorate of Hesse-Cassel. Carefully nur- 
tured, he received his early training, first in the schools 
of his native place and later at the Latin School of 
Fritzlar, whither his father had removed while the son 
was still a lad of eight or nine, and which henceforth 
was the home of his youth and early manhood. There 
he passed through the curriculum, his quiet bearing 
and studious habits winning him the commendation 
and respect of his teachers. Fond of flowers and pets 
as a child, he early developed a taste for the natural 
sciences, and his spare hours and holidays were largely 
spent roaming the fields, woods, and hills in search of 
plants, minerals, and other objects of interest. He also 
delighted especially in books of travel and adventure. 
His education owed more perhaps to his home circle 
than to the school. His mother, an excellent woman of 
great piety, devoted herself to the culture of her four 
children, and had she lived until Anton's manhood, 
he might have entered the Church — thus following 
the example of his maternal uncle, who was attached 
to the Dom of Fritzlar, where the young Goessmann 
often served as altar-boy. The 'priest-uncle,' as he 




N ^ 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 5 

was fondly called, was the instructor, mentor, com- 
panion, and idol of his kinsfolk. 

On leaving school young Goessmann, like Davy, 
Liebig, Heinrich Rose, and the French chemist Pelouze, 
first became interested in pharmacy. He pursued his 
studies with a kinsman at Gudensberg near Cassel, to 
whom he had been apprenticed, and in 1846 passed 
the state examination required to qualify him as an 
assistant in pharmacy. The next four years were passed 
as an apothecary's assistant at Gottingen, Mainz, and 
Fulda, Goessmann devoting his spare moments to the 
pursuit of his favourite studies, chemistry, botany, and 
geology. Inheriting, however, a love of science and 
wishing to perfect himself yet further in his vocation, 
he entered the University of Gottingen at Easter, 27 
April 1850, matriculating in the philosophical faculty 
as a student of pharmacy. It was natural that in seek- 
ing a university he should turn to Gottingen, where 
three years earlier he had been assistant to Julius Post, 
the University apothecary, and where his father's 
friend and fellow-student at Marburg, Friedrich Woh- 
ler, then at the height of his fame, filled the chair of 
chemistry. 

The following letter from Wohler to Kreisphysikus 
Dr. Goessmann has fortunately been preserved : — 

Gottingen, 12 April 1850. 
Most esteemed Sir and Friend, — 

Your lines have recalled to me most vividly the 
scenes of my first imiversity year and my associations 
with you in old Marburg. Although more than 30 



6 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMAKN 

years have passed, I can see you so plainly that I could 
make a sketch of you. I need not assure you that I 
shall take care of your son in the best possible manner. 
I shall reserve for him the first place that may be 
vacant. The lectures and laboratory work are set to 
begin as early as the 15th of the month. It can be fore- 
seen, however, that as usual only a few students will 
be present. Therefore, I, as well as most of my col- 
leagues, shall not commence until Thursday the 18th 
of the month. 

With great respect. 

Your most obedient, 

WOHLER. 

Here, during the next five semesters, he heard 
Wohler, Wiggers, and Staedeler in chemistry, Bartling 
and Lantzius-Beninga in botany, Weber, the renowned 
physicist and revolutionist, in physics, Sartorius von 
Waltershausen in geology and mineralogy, Hausmann 
in technology, and Bohtz in the history of German 
literature. Thus was laid a broad and solid foundation 
for his future life-work. 

At the close of the summer semester of 1851 Goess- 
mann, it seems, had fully determined to leave Gottin- 
gen and follow the calling of a pharmacist. With that 
purpose in view he went to take leave of his teacher. 
Wohler, discerning in his young friend those endow- 
ments and aptitudes of mind which promised success 
in the field of science, pointed out the difference be- 
tween practical pharmacy and scientific chemistry, 
and urged upon him the expediency of abandoning the 




^ 1 

M CO 

M -a 

11 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 7 

former and of devoting himself to science. Happily, 
the advice was followed, and Goessmann decided to 
devote himself henceforth to chemistry. Soon after 
this he became chemical assistant to Professor Staede- 
ler, who was then lecturing on physiological chemistry. 

In March 1852 he passed the examination in phar- 
macy before the Electoral Medical College of Hesse- 
Cassel, and in June was appointed by Wohler second 
assistant in analytical and practical chemistry in the 
Chemical Laboratory. During the temporary absence 
of Wohler in Switzerland, whither he had gone in 
search of health, Goessmann taught his class in phar- 
maceutical chemistry. On his return Wohler presented 
him with a handsome Swiss watch, which he carried for 
more than half a century. 

In the autumn of 1852, during the dekanat of 
Geheimer Hofrath Ritter, Goessmann presented a dis- 
sertation Ueber die Bestandtheile der Canthariden. This 
was his first scientific paper and stamped its author as 
an original investigator of marked ability. In Decem- 
ber, 'after passing,' says Wohler, *a most excellent 
examination,' he took his degree as Doctor of Phi- 
losophy. 

Two years later, in 1854, appeared his Habilitations- 
schrift, Verwandlung des Thialdins in Leucin and Bei- 
trag zur Kenntniss des Leucins. The results of this 
classic research on the constitution and production of 
leucin were at once communicated by Wohler to Jean- 
Bap tiste Dumas, Perpetual Secretary of the French 
Academy of Sciences, and published by him in the 
Comptes rendus. This important contribution to knowl- 



8 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

edge also obtained him the distinction of associate 
membership in the Physico-Medical Society of the 
University of Erlangen.^ 

In February of 1855 he was appointed Privatdocent 
in the philosophical faculty, with permission to lecture 
in all branches of chemistry and pharmacy, and soon 
thereafter, on the promotion of his friend and colleague, 
Heinrich Limpricht, to a professorship, he succeeded 
him as first assistant in the Chemical Institute. From 
1852 to 1857 Goessmann lectured on organic chem- 
istry, on selected subjects in technical chemistry, 
had charge of the instruction in organic and inor- 
ganic analysis, and taught pharmacy to the medical 
students. 

'He acted as my assistant in the laboratory,' writes 
Wohler in 1857, 'and in this capacity he has served for 
five years to my utmost satisfaction, and has aided me 
most efficiently through his excellent knowledge and 
his indefatigable zeal in teaching practical chemistry.' 
From Professor Chandler we learn that Wohler en- 
trusted to Goessmann his most advanced laboratory 
students. 

It was during this period that he made his most 
important researches and discoveries in organic and 
analytic chemistry. The results of these various inves- 
tigations — some twenty -four in all — first appeared 
in Liebig's Annalen,^ and established his reputation as 
a careful, skilful, and productive investigator. 

In September 1854 the yearly meeting of the German 

^ Physikalisch-medicinische Societal zu Erlangen. 

* Abstracts of these papers were published in the Annates de Chimie et 
de Physique, by Charles Adolpbe Wurtz, the eminent French chemist. 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 9 

Naturalists and Physicians was held at Gottingen,^ 
and Goessmann read a paper, entitled Ueber Leucin 
und Essigsdure-Aldehyd. Two years later (16-24 Sep- 
tember 1856) he attended the meeting at Vienna, 
where he saw many noted men of science, including 
Anton Schrotter, professor of chemistry in the Royal 
and Imperial Polytechnical Institute, perpetual secre- 
tary of the Academy of Sciences, and noted for his 
researches on phosphorus; Baron von Reichenbach, 
the technical chemist and discoverer of paraffin and 
creosote; Wilhelm Haidinger, the mineralogist and 
physicist, the discoverer of ' Haidinger 's brushes,' and 
director of the Imperial Geological Institute of Austria; 
Ley dolt, the mineralogist; von Martins, the celebrated 
Brazilian traveller and botanist; Franz von Kobell, the 
mineralogist and poet; Vogel, the agricultural chemist; 
Schafhautl, the mineralogist and technologist; and 
Redtenbacher, the mechanician and director of the 
Polytechnic School at Karlsruhe. 

During the years 1855 and 1856 Johann Lukas 
Schonlein, the eminent pathologist and physician to 
Frederick William IV, and the founder of exact mod- 
em clinical methods in Germany, had endeavoured to 
establish at the Royal Charite Hospital in Berlin a 
laboratory for research in physiological and patho- 
logical chemistry, and Goessmann was offered the 
directorship. Had this project succeeded, it would 
have been very gratifying to him, as he wished to de- 
vote himseK to animal chemistry — a field of inquiry 

* The yearly gatherings of the Deutsche Naturforseher und Aerzte were 
instituted by Lorenz Oken in 1822, the first meeting being held at Leipzig. 



10 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

in which he had already achieved notable success. 
Owing, however, to the opposition of Eilhard Mitscher- 
lich, to whom the matter was referred by the Prussian 
Ministry of Public Worship and Instruction, the proj- 
ect was abandoned. 

As already mentioned, Goessmann's most important 
researches in the field of pure chemistry were con- 
ducted in the laboratory at Gottingen in the years 1852 
to 1857 — years which were among the most active, 
fruitful, and enjoyable of his whole life. The free and 
cordial way in which he worked in conjunction with 
his pupils and others is partly seen in the various names 
which are associated with his in authorship. 

His earliest investigation of which there is any pub- 
lished record, and with which his active scientific 
career may be said to begin, was upon the composition 
of Cantharis vesicatoria, and the results of this research, 
as already noted, appeared first in the dissertation for 
his doctorate.^ He found that the fat of cantharidin 
consists of stearin, palmitin, and olein in the form of 
acid glycerides of margaric and oleic acids. At the 
suggestion of Professor Heintz he attempted the reso- 
lution of margaric acid by fractional precipitation into 
stearic and palmitic acids, and succeeded in separating 
the latter acid. In 1854 he discovered in the oil of the 
ground-nut (Arachis hypogaea) a new acid with the 
formula C20H40O2, subsequently confirmed by Berthe- 

* The brief outline of Goessmann's work in the Gottingen Laboratory 
here given does not conform in all respects to the chemistry of the 
present. Nevertheless, as it was revised by Goessmann himself, though 
many years ago, and received his approval, the editors decided to print 
it unchanged. 




pi 

:0 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 11 

lot, to which he gave the name arachie (or arachidic) 
acid. He next investigated the cocoa-nut oil, and found 
it to consist, not only of stearin and olein, as earlier 
pointed out by Boussingault and Stenhouse, but also 
of palmitin, the first mentioned in such predominating 
proportion that it was considered one of the best ma- 
terials for the preparation of pure stearic acid. 

In 1854 he published the results of his memorable 
research on the conversion of thialdin into leucin. In 
this research was verified the relation supposed to ex- 
ist by M. Cahours between thialdin and leucin. The 
former, CeHigNS^, he converted into leucin, CeHigNOg, 
by treatment with oxide of silver and water at 212° 
Fahr. These results were at once communicated by 
Wohler to Jean-Baptiste Dumas, Perpetual Secretary 
of the French Academy of Sciences, and appeared in 
the Comptes rendus the same year. It is interesting to 
recall that in the years 1853 to 1856 (almost simultane- 
ously therefore) Frerichs at Breslau and Virchow at 
Wiirzburg were conducting investigations on the occur- 
rence and separation of leucin and tyrosin in the ani- 
mal organism, especially in the human liver. 

Soon after this he investigated the compounds of 
leucin. He showed that leucin might be considered the 
amide of a compound acid consisting of valeral (alde- 
hyde of valeric acid) and formic acid, a view subse- 
quently confirmed by his colleague Limpricht. He 
showed, moreover, that leucin forms salts with oxide of 
copper and with peroxide of mercury; and that with 
oxide of lead two series of salts are formed, one insolu- 
ble and the other soluble. He also prepared leucic acid 



12 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

from leucin by the same process which served him for 
the preparation of benzoglycoHc acid from hippuric 
acid. After distillation he recognized as products of 
decomposition hydrocyanic and valeric (or valerianic) 
acids, ammonia and valero-nitrile. Previously he had 
obtained a solution which evolved the odour of chlo- 
ride of cyanogen. 

By a new method he obtained ethylamine from bi- 
sulphite of aldehyde-ammonia by distillation with 
calcium hydroxide. From the oil of bitter almonds 
(benzoic aldehyde) he collected amarine and lophine. 
He showed that lophine is formed when bisulphite of 
ammonia and oil of bitter almonds are heated together 
with dry calcium hydroxide. He and Atkinson like- 
wise established the formula of lophine, C21H17N2, — 
which differs very little from that adopted by Fownes, 
one of the original discoverers of this base, — and also 
showed that the pyrobenzoline of Fownes and the 
lophine of Laurent are identical. 

In 1855 Goessmann and Scheven, in a subsequent 
investigation of the ground-nut oil, discovered a new 
member of the oleic acid series with the formula 
CieHsoOg, which they named hypogaeic acid. Goess- 
mann and Caldwell showed that hypogaeic acid in 
contact with nitrous acid is converted into the isomeric 
compound, gaeidic acid. By dry distillation of hypo- 
gaeic acid Goessmann obtained ordinary sebacic acid. 
He also found palmitic acid present in the ground- 
nut oil. In his investigations on the combinations of 
arachic acid he prepared arachin by heating equal 
parts of arachic acid and glycerin in a sealed glass tube. 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 13 

He obtained from the oil of cassia a new base, which 
he named triphenylamine, by heating the bisulphite 
of the ammoniacal cinnamic aldehyde with calcium 
hydroxide; and obtained tricaproylamine by a sim- 
ilar mode from caproyl aldehyde. He prepared cou- 
marin from the Tonka bean, discovered a profitable 
way of separating styracin, and determined the compo- 
sition of huanokine, a new base of Peruvian bark, 
CioHijNO, and found that it is isomeric with cincho- 
nine. He investigated the action of zinc chloride on 
hippuric acid, and showed that when chlorine is passed 
into a solution of hippuric acid in rather dilute potash, 
nitrogen is evolved and benzoglycolic acid produced. 

He obtained crystallized sulphocyanide of silver by 
the action of oxide of silver upon sulphocyanide of 
ammonium. Experiments on the action of oxide of 
silver upon sulphocyanide of ammonium gave occa- 
sion to the observation of the following very beautiful 
mode of formation of sulphocyanide of silver. If freshly 
precipitated oxide of silver be digested at a gentle heat 
with a solution of sulphocyanide of ammonium, a con- 
tinual evolution of ammonia takes place, while oxide 
of silver is dissolved; and thus a compound of the sul- 
phocyanides of silver and ammonium is formed, to- 
gether with unchanged sulphocyanide of ammonium, 
the process affording a beautiful example of rapid for- 
mation of crystals. He found manganate of potassium 
a suitable substance for decolourizing organic bodies, 
and employed it in purifying uric, hippuric, and cya- 
nuric acids, with great success. In 1857 he made re- 
peated experiments with the view of obtaining by the 



14 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

action of iodide of ethyl on tungstate of silver a com- 
pound of oxide of ethyl and tungstic acid. In this he 
did not succeed, but obtained iodide of silver, free 
tungstic acid, and oxide of ethyl. He showed that ani- 
line is obtained when nitrobenzene is treated with 
caustic soda and arsenic trioxide — an investigation 
completed by Wohler. 

The year 1857 saw the completion of Goessmann's 
researches in the field of pure chemistry, and with it 
concluded the period of his most important discoveries. 
He soon attained, however, a leading place among 
technical chemists in the country of his adoption, and 
his advice was often sought on important questions. 
His attention was thus turned from purely scientific 
subjects to matters of more practical interest. 

While a teacher at Gottingen he numbered among 
his American pupils and friends Caldwell of Cornell, 
Chandler of Columbia, Clark of Amherst, Garrigues of 
Michigan, Hungerford of Vermont, Joy of Union, 
Mallet of Virginia, Marsh of Illinois, Nason of Rens- 
selaer, Pugh of Pennsylvania, and Weyman of Pitts- 
burgh. Anton Geuther, afterwards called to Jena, was 
likewise a pupil of his and his immediate successor at 
Gottingen. The testimonials he received bear witness 
to the esteem in which he was held by his fellow work- 
ers and students. One of the most gratifying was a 
beautiful balance from his American students in- 
scribed with their names. ^ At his departure from 
Gottingen his pupils presented him with a silver lov- 

The plate bears the following inscription: 'Presented to Dr. Goess- 
mann by J. Dean, C, Chandler, E. Pugh, G. C. Caldwell, E. P. Eastwick, 
J. H. Eastwick, J. F. Magee, D. K. Tuttle, J. D. Hague, H. P> Nason.' 




^5 



£ I 

p i 

M 
:0 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 15 

ing-cup, bearing the following inscription : Ihrem ver- 
ehrten Lehrer Dr. A. Goessmann die Practikanten des 
Chemischen Lahoratoriums Gottingen 26ten Mdrz 1857. 
Wohler, his lifelong friend, gave him, amongst other 
tokens of regard, the portfolio used by Berzelius and 
himself for carrying notes and manuscripts during 
their geological and mineralogical tour through Sweden 
and Norway in 1824. 

On 1 July 1824, Friedrich Wohler and Christian 
Retzius set out for Skimskatteberg, the estate of 
Hisinger the chemist, where they found Berzelius 
awaiting them. There they spent a week, making 
short excursions in the neighbourhood with Berzelius 
and Hisinger. In the middle of July they journeyed to 
Helsingborg to meet the Brongniarts — Alexandre, 
the chemist and mineralogist, and his son Adolphe, 
the botanist. Here they found Baron Wrede the phys- 
icist, Oersted the founder of the science of electro- 
magnetism, and Sir Humphry Davy the natural phi- 
losopher. At Lund they were welcomed by Nilsson the 
naturalist, and Agardh the botanist, and at Chris- 
tiania by Hansteen the mathematician and astrono- 
mer, Esmark the mineralogist, and Steff ens the Natur- 
philosoph. After an absence of two months, the party 
— which had included Berzelius, the Brongniarts, and 
Wohler — returned to Stockholm. It does not appear, 
as Goessmann supposed, that Arfvedson, the mineralo- 
gist, was one of the party, though earlier the latter 
made a short journey to the island of Uto, in the Baltic, 
in company with Berzelius, Hisinger, C. Retzius, and 
Wohler. 



16 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

In April 1857, notwithstanding the prospect of 
further advancement, Goessmann left Gottingen. He 
was led to this step, partly because of an urgent invi- 
tation from the Eastwick Brothers of Philadelphia, 
former pupils of his in technical chemistry, to visit 
America and assume the chemical direction of an 
extensive sugar refinery, but chiefly because it was in 
accord with the advice of his revered teacher, which 
was *to see something of the world and study the 
great industries.' 'Unfortunately, I am to lose him,' 
wrote Wohler to Liebig at this time, 'for five years my 
assistant and known to you through his works.' ^ 

He obtained from the University Curatorium a three 
years' leave of absence, for the purpose of studying the 
chemical industries of France, England and the United 
States. At his departure he was informed by the 
authorities that whenever within the three years he 
chose to return, he should be promoted to a professor- 
ship. That he fully expected to return to Germany 
there seems little doubt. It was not until some time 
after he had entered upon his work at Syracuse that he 
definitely resolved to remain in America. 

The next few weeks were spent visiting some of the 
leading German universities, as well as many manu- 
facturing, refining, and industrial establishments in 
Germany and France, thus giving him an opportunity 
of seeing and becoming familiar with a great variety 
of chemical operations on a large scale. During this 
tour he met many of the foremost chemists of the Con- 
tinent. He saw Bunsen at Heidelberg, Erdmann at 

^ Liebig-Wohler Briefioechsel, Bd. ii. S. 40. 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 17 

Leipzig, and Fehling at Stuttgart. At Munich he met 
Pettenkofer and Buchner, but above all Liebig, the 
latter, unless we except Wohler, the chief chemical 
figure in Europe. At Berlin he met Eilhard Mitscher- 
lich, known by his discoveries in isomorphism, and the 
highly accomplished analytical chemist, Heinrich Rose, 
both, like his great teacher, pupils of Berzelius, one of 
the founders of modern chemistry. To this brilliant 
group of scientists should be added Christian Friedrich 
Schonbein, the chemical physicist and discoverer of 
gun-cotton and ozone, Gustav Magnus, August Wil- 
helm Hofmann, Rammelsberg, and the French chem- 
ist, Henri Sainte-Claire Deville. These he met, and 
many other scientific workers, and by all was cordially 
received, his investigations and discoveries in organic 
chemistry having already made his name familiar to 
them. 



CHAPTER II 

FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA 
1857-1868 

On the 12th of May 1857, Goessmann embarked at 
Bremen, in the steamship Ariel, for America. On his 
arrival at New York he proceeded at once to Phila- 
delphia, and entered upon his duties as Chemist and 
General Superintendent of the Eastwick Brothers* 
Steam Sugar Refinery. He had brought from Germany 
considerable apparatus for the Eastwicks, and at once 
set about increasing the efficiency of their plant by 
introducing more scientific and economic methods for 
refining sugar, not the least important being the appli- 
cation of caustic magnesia with acid phosphate of lime. 

He greatly improved the method of refining sugar 
by the defecation of solutions of crude cane sugar. He 
found by experiment that by employing in combina- 
tion caustic magnesia (or magnesium hydroxide) with 
calcium hydroxide, better results were obtained than 
by the use of either reagent alone; and, further, that a 
thick cream of magnesium hydroxide and water, added 
to the warmed sugar liquor, gave better results than 
he or any one else had hitherto obtained. 

During the following months he made a thorough 
study and investigation of the Chinese sugar-cane 
(Sorghum saccharatum) , the results of which were pub- 
lished both in this country and Europe. From both a 



FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA 19 

chemical and an economic standpoint this elaborate 
research is one of the most valuable made in America 
respecting our knowledge of the plant and its products, 
its potentialities as a source of sugar, its method of 
culture, and the preparation of sugar and syrup from 
its juice. It was his opinion at the time that, pro- 
vided the percentage of sugar in the sorghum could 
be increased in the same ratio as in the beet root, its 
successful cultivation would become an accomplished 
fact, and our farmers would be able to compete profit- 
ably with the planters of the West Indies. 

In February 1862, he read a paper of great impor- 
tance and interest before the New York State Agricul- 
tural Society, on the nature of Sorghum saccharaturriy 
discussing at length the history of the plant, its chem- 
ical characters, the determination of the quality and 
quantity of sugar, and its value for agricultural and 
industrial purposes. Some four years earlier he had 
sent this exhaustive monograph to Wohler, who gave 
it to Henneberg, and it was published in the Journal 
fur Landwirthschaft. Returning to this subject ten 
years later, Goessmann says : ' I stated the results of a 
chemical investigation carried out by me in 1857, con- 
cerning the fitness of the sorghum cane for the manu- 
facture of sugar and of superior syrups. These state- 
ments have been confirmed, as far as its yield of good 
quality of syrup is concerned; but the manufacture of 
sugar has not been tried to any extent, although there 
is no substantial reason why within some of the South- 
ern States, with their favourable climate, a part of its 
sugar might not be advantageously secured in crystals. 



20 CHAELES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

A proper defecation of the sorghum juice before its 
concentration would doubtless accomplish that result. 
In making these statements here, I do not intend to 
assert that most of our Northern, and particularly our 
Northwestern States can profitably engage in the pro- 
duction of sorghum sugar. Localities liable to early 
frosts and short seasons had better confine themselves, 
if at all engaged in sorghum cultivation, to the manu- 
facture of syrups, for unripe cane is entirely unfit for 
the manufacture of crystallized sugar. The Middle 
and some of the Southern States have apparently not 
sufficiently appreciated the value of this crop.' 

At the beginning of December 1860, Goessmann 
abruptly terminated his engagement with the East- 
wicks, and went at once to Cuba, for the purpose of 
studying the agricultural industries, especially the cul- 
tivation of sugar and tobacco, of the West Indies. 
There he remained nearly four months, visiting many 
plantations, witnessing the working of the sugar-cane, 
experimenting with the juice, and thoroughly investi- 
gating the processes of manufacturing and refining 
sugar in the island. 

On his return from the West Indies in March of 1861 
he was invited by Dr. George H. Cook,^ professor of 
geology at Rutgers College and state geologist of New 
Jersey, 'to participate in a scientific investigation for 
the improvement of the manufacture of dairy salt at 
Syracuse, New York.' Goessmann seems to have made 
a favourable impression at Syracuse, as he was offered, 

^ In 1852 Dr. Cook was sent abroad by the State of New York to study 
the salt deposits of Europe. 



FIRST YEARS IN AI^IERICA 21 

and accepted, the position of Chemist and Superin- 
tendent of the Salt Company of Onondaga. 

This company had been estabhshed near Syracuse in 
March 1860 — about a year, therefore, before Dr. 
Goessmann's appointment. It was formed, not only 
for the purpose of uniting the interests of the different 
manufacturers of Onondaga salt, but in order to secure 
a more thorough and systematic management, to re- 
duce the cost of manufacture, and to improve and give 
uniformity to the character and quality of Onondaga 
salt. Such a co-operation of interests under a single 
control would doubtless now be stigmatized as a mo- 
nopoly and 'trust.' 

'Regarding as of the utmost importance that a per- 
fectly pure salt should be furnished for the use of all 
engaged in making an article of such universal use as 
butter, and fully appreciating the necessity of such 
perfect uniformity in its quality as to command the 
confidence of dairymen, the Salt Company of Onon- 
daga has placed the manufacture of its Factory -filled 
Dairy Salt under the superintendence of an accom- 
plished chemist, who has for several years past made 
agricultural and manufacturing chemistry his specialty, 

— Dr. C. A. Goessmann, a graduate of, and for some 
years a teacher in the German University of Gottingen, 

— and who has for more than a year past devoted his 
entire attention, in the employment of this company, 
to the improvement of the processes of manufacturing 
salt.'^ The claim made by the company, of making 
Hhe best Dairy Salt known to the world,' under the cir- 

* Report of the Salt Company of Onondaga for 1862. 



22 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

cumstances was probably just; at least, according to 
Professor Cook, no mean authority, it was fully equal 
to the best imported salt. This statement was corrobo- 
rated by Professor Porter, chemist to the New York 
State Agricultural Society, who said it was equal in 
purity to any of the foreign salts. ' Under the superin- 
tendence of Dr. Goessmann,' said a leading chemist in 
1867, 'the Salt Company of Onondaga has succeeded 
in making the best Dairy Salt in the world.' In Goess- 
mann's time the salt works at Syracuse produced an- 
nually eight million bushels of salt. 

In the autumn of 1862 he was sent to Michigan to 
examine the brines and saline deposits at Saginaw — 
and here it may be mentioned that eight years later, 
in 1870, Dr. Samuel S. Garrigues of Ann Arbor, state 
inspector of salt and a former Gottingen student, 
visited Dr. Goessmann at Amherst, and together they 
framed the salt laws of Michigan. 

In March 1866, he was appointed consulting cor- 
respondent of the American Bureau of Mines, and in 
October of that year was commissioned by the Board 
of Experts to undertake the technical, chemical, and 
industrial investigation of the recently discovered rock- 
salt deposit of Petite Anse Island, New Iberia, on 
Vermilion Bay, Louisiana. In November he visited 
the island, where he remained several weeks, studying 
the natural features, conditions, and commercial rela- 
tions of its rock-salt deposit. The next year he made 
two visits to Canada, the first in the latter part of 
June and the second the last of December, for the 
purpose of ascertaining the extent of the saline 



FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA 23 

resources and the quality of the brines, especially at 
Goderich. 

In 1862 he published his first paper on salines. This, 
the first of a series of reports to the State Superintend- 
ent of the Onondaga Salt Springs on the chemical com- 
position of the brines, was followed by reports on the 
brines of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Vir- 
ginia, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 
on the rock-salt deposit of Petite Anse Island, on the 
salt resources of Goderich, Canada West, and by other 
contributions to the chemistry of mineral springs and 
natural brines. The report on the rock-salt deposit of 
Petite Anse Island — republished at Washington in 
the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge — was 
pronounced by Professor Hilgard, then state geologist 
of Mississippi, able and exhaustive, and confirmed 
that author's previous conjectures 'that the overlying 
strata were the equivalents of the formation described 
by him as the "Orange Sand" of Mississippi.' 

The improvements introduced by Goessmann while 
superintendent at Onondaga, in the manufacture of 
pure dairy and table salt, were many and important. 
He devised an ingenious method for freeing pure 
sodium chloride, in the manufacture of salt, from the 
chlorides of calcium and magnesium. Previously it had 
been impossible effectually to remove those noxious 
and deleterious ingredients, and the product was bitter 
and unfit for either table or dairy use. He ladled the 
crude salt-crystals from the brines on to inclined drip- 
boards, and then washed them with a saturated water 
solution of pure salt (sodium chloride). Such a solu- 



24 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

tion does not dissolve sodium chloride, but being free 
from the other chlorides (unsaturated for them) it dis- 
solved and removes them, leaving behind pure sodium 
chloride. He also invented a process for screening the 
salt, whereby it is separated into large and small crys- 
tals. The system of evaporating in pans, as recom- 
mended by him, was also adopted in the salt-works at 
Goderich, Canada. 

Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, in his reports as director of 
the Geological Survey of the Dominion of Canada, 
expressed his *deep sense of the value of Dr. Goess- 
mann's important contributions to the chemistry of 
salt-making in New York.' 

Professor John S. Newberry, in a paper on the rock- 
salt deposits of the Salina Group in Western New York, 
read before the New York Academy of Sciences, says: 
*The imequal distribution of the "bitterns" in the 
brines and salt of different localities is an interesting 
feature in these salt deposits. In some places almost 
the only ingredient of the brine is chloride of sodium, 
and some of the rock-salt, as we have seen, is almost 
chemically pure; in other locahties, perhaps not dis- 
tant, the brine or the salt contains an abnormal quan- 
tity of the chlorides of calcium and magnesium and the 
sulphate of magnesia and soda. This problem has been 
carefully studied by Professor Chas. A. Goessmann, 
and he has suggested what is doubtless its true solu- 
tion, viz., that in the progressive evaporation of a basin 
filled with water having the normal composition of sea- 
water, the substances held in solution will be precipi- 
tated in the inverse order of their solubility: — thus 




IN THE SYRACUSE LABORATORY 



FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA 25 

sulphate of lime (gypsum) , the least soluble ingredient, 
will be the first thrown down, the chloride of sodium 
next, and lastly, if at all, the deliquescent salts which 
form the " bitterns." . . . This will account for the de- 
position of gypsum, of pure salt, and of unusually bitter 
salt, in different parts of the same basin.' 

Facts illustrating this distribution of the solid con- 
tent of salt water were reported by Goessmann from 
the salt-basin of the Upper Ohio, and similar facts have 
been brought to light in boring the wells about 
Goderich. 

A few months after Dr. Goessmann had entered on 
his duties at Syracuse he was strongly urged by his 
friends — especially by Professor Chandler, then at 
Union College — to accept the professorship of chem- 
istry in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, 
which had recently become vacant through the death 
of Professor Elderhorst. In a letter from Professor 
Chandler to Vice-President Brinsmade, dated Novem- 
ber 9, 1861, touching Goessmann, he says: 'When I 
worked as a pupil, under his direction in Wohler's 
laboratory, he was universally beloved by the students, 
and was a model of all that is desirable in a teacher.* 
In his reply to a letter from Dr. Brinsmade, Goessmann 
strongly urged the desirability of a thorough course of 
instruction in chemistry and also submitted plans for 
a chemical laboratory. For two years, from 1862 to 
1864, he filled the chair of chemistry and physics at 
the Institute and taught also mineralogy. He was 
succeeded by Dr. Henry B. Nason, a former pupil at 
Gottingen. 



26 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

Goessmann gave up his position at the Institute with 
evident regret, but it was becoming more and more 
difficult to discharge properly the duties of both posi- 
tions, and he could hardly afford to relinquish Syracuse 
for Troy. In a letter to Professor Drowne, he writes : — 

*The necessity to look into my present condition 
more than before, for an advantageous and sure in- 
come, has mainly prompted me to decide finally, in 
view of many circumstances, for Syracuse, Just at the 
day when I received by a communication from W. 
Gurley, Esq., the information of my appointment as 
Professor, etc., I got a very advantageous offer from 
Boston. My present employers, in view of these offers, 
advanced my salary so as to make my present engage- 
ment more acceptable. I have here a well-supplied 
laboratory at my entire disposal, being permitted to 
attend to any kind of investigation I wish to, par- 
ticularly during the winter season.* 

Dr. Goessmann now found himself in a position to 
marry. On 22 October 1862, he married Mary Anna 
Clara, daughter of Edward Kinny of Syracuse. Mr. 
Kinny was a founder of the Church of St. John the 
Evangelist, and a charter member of the Society of 
St. Vincent de Paul. Mrs. Goessmann was educated 
in the private schools of Syracuse and at the Academy 
of Mount Saint Vincent-on-Hudson, where her kins- 
woman, Mother Angela Hughes, sister of the Arch- 
bishop, was then in charge.^ 

^ Mrs. Goessmann died at Amherst, 13 October 1911. Their siu-viving 
children are Miss Helena T. and Miss Mary F. Goessmann of Amherst, 
Louis E. and Charles I. Goessmann of New York, and Mrs. Agnes R. Spratt 
of Brooklyn. A son, Henry Edward Victor, died 27 April 1882, during his 
jvmior year at the Agricultural College. 



FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA 27 

In 1863 Goessmann received a letter from Wohler, 
saying that he had proposed him for the professorship 
of technical chemistry in the Herzogliche Technische 
Hochschule (formerly the Collegium Carolinum) at 
Braunschweig, and he knew that they were seriously 
considering him for that position, though a decision 
might not be reached for a year. This was yet another 
evidence of Wohler's high regard, and was very grati- 
fying to Goessmann. 

Goessmann writes : — 

*We are already sufficiently aware that political af- 
fairs in this country have so shaped themselves that 
the future is not promising. Consequently, my desire 
to return to the Fatherland under favourable condi- 
tions will not surprise you. How much, therefore, I 
have enjoyed your communication concerning such a 
prospect needs no further comment. ... As for the 
present, I am still engaged here for this year, and at its 
close I may possibly receive a new offer. I leave here 
on your advice. Things will go on as they are, as I am 
looking forward to a definite answer from you in the 
autumn.' 

Other letters passed between Wohler and Goess- 
mann on the subject of his return to Germany, before 
his final decision to remain in America. 



CHAPTER III 

THE CALL TO AMHERST 

1868-1882 

In May 1868 Dr. Goessmann was invited by the 
Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College to 
the professorship of chemistry recently established by 
them. In December he removed to Amherst and 
entered on his duties. Henceforth the teaching of 
chemistry, research, and the diffusion of science in its 
relation to agriculture, became the absorbing occupa- 
tions of his life. 

Some years before the election of William S. Clark 
to the presidency of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College several letters had passed between Goessmann 
and his old friend respecting a teaching position at 
Amherst. In a letter dated June 10, 1865, Colonel 
Clark writes: *How would you like to teach practical 
chemistry or to be connected as teacher with a New 
England college.^' Writing nearly two years later, on 
March 16, 1867, he says: 'This is to urgently beg you 
to visit me here in the month of May next. . . . We are 
about starting our new Agricultural College here and 
possibly may have work for you.' And again, in 
November following,^ he writes: 'President Stearns [of 

1 A few months earlier Colonel Clark had resigned the chair of chemistry 
at Amherst College to accept the presidency of the Massachusetts Agricul- 
tural College, and his successor had not yet been appointed. 



THE CALL TO AMHERST 2& 

Amherst College] would like to have you come on 
here next week that he may see you with reference to 
lectures, etc. next term.' 

Dr. Goessmann's letter accepting the Amherst 
Professorship runs as follows : — 

Syracuse, May 16th, 1868. 

Colonel W. S. Clark, Ph.D. 

President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
Amherst, Mass. 
Dear Sir, — 

Your favour of 13th inst., in which you announce to 
me my election as Professor of Chemistry in the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, came in due 
time to hand. I take the liberty of informing you, that 
I hereby accept that position on the conditions speci- 
fied in your letter. I add at the same time, that I shall 
attend most cheerfully to my duties and thereby in 
my opinion aid you best in accomplishing the object 
for which your institute has been established. As soon 
as the present pressure in business shall permit me to 
settle upon an exact time for a visit at Amherst, — to 
consult on fixtures and apparatus, etc., for my partic- 
ular branch of instruction, I propose to write again. 
Please accept my most sincere thanks for the kind 
interest taken in my behalf. I remain. 
Very respectfully yours, 

Charles Anton Goessmann. 

He was forty-one. President Clark thus describes 
him: 'The other professor [Goessmann] is not here. 



30 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

He is coming on Friday. I am very sorry he could not 
be here to-day, for I would like to have you see him. 
He is a hearty, full-blooded, wide-awake, nervous 
German. I will not compare him with Agassiz, but I 
will say he is a man of a temperament something like 
his. We were fellow-students in a German university 
twenty years ago, and he was one of the best students 
of his time. When we graduated together, the profes- 
sor came to me and said: "What do you think of that 
young man as an assistant for me? " "I think he is the 
very best man you can find." Said he, "I think just 
so," and immediately appointed him his assistant. That 
professor is the best chemist in the world. ... I know 
there is not a better practical chemist in the United 
States than Dr. Goessmann. I anticipate that he will 
be a light in this country, right here among this people, 
and that scientific investigations and experiments will 
be carried on under his supervision here, by the stu- 
dents of this College, which will redound to the credit 
of the State, and to the credit of this Board, as con- 
nected with the College.' ^ 

Elsewhere, he says: 'His large experience as a 
teacher, and his great familiarity with the applications 
of chemistry to the arts, qualify him, in a peculiar 
manner, for the important position of chemist in the 
Agricultural College. It is confidently expected that, 
under his supervision, analyses of commercial fertil- 
izers will be made, and suitable experiments instituted, 

» Address by President Clark on the 'Work and the Wants of the Col- 
lege,' before the State Board of Agriculture, meeting at Amherst, Decem- 
ber 8, 1868. 




CHARLES A. GOESSMAXN 

About 1875 



THE CALL TO AMHERST 31 

to determine for what purposes and at what prices the 
farmers of the State should employ them.' ^ 

*I know of his work as a scientific chemist,' said 
Professor Agassiz, ' and I do not believe that you could 
have had a better appointment. I believe that the 
gentleman is not only fully competent to fulfil his 
duties with honour to the institution and credit to him- 
self, but I believe he is one of those men who will 
advance his science also, if he is not overburdened with 
local duties and with teaching. He is a foreigner. . . . 
It is not a very dangerous thing to take professors from 
foreign parts. I am such an one, and I have in a measure 
succeeded in making myself a native American.' 

The duties of the new professorship included teach- 
ing 'four hours per day five days in the week during 
39 weeks of the year. Also, to render assistance by 
chemical analysis or consultation, as required, to the 
amount of about one hour per day, if needed.' *I 
shall expect of course,' says President Clark, 'to do 
what I can to render your duties agreeable and shall 
rely much upon you for advice and assistance in the 
most important enterprise with which I am entrusted. 
I intend to have the chemical department of the Col- 
lege equal to any in the country.' 

The College had but just started. It was, moreover, 
an experiment and was feeling its way. A department 
of chemistry could hardly be said to exist. There was, 
to be sure, a modest building called the Chemical 
Laboratory, but it possessed neither apparatus nor 

* Sixth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Janu- 
ary 1869. 



32 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

fittings nor furniture, and was used as a gymnasium. 
Dr. Goessmann entered on his duties with zeal, devot- 
ing himself to the improvement of the equipment for 
both demonstration and research, and to the organiza- 
tion of courses of lectures and laboratory instruction. 
He not only organized and established this department 
on a firm and enduring basis, laying the foundation 
broad and deep, but from the first he stamped his in- 
fluence and personality on the structural growth of the 
College, and was a guiding and controlling spirit in 
shaping its policy. The reputation which the institu- 
tion attained, almost from the beginning, was in large 
measure due to him. His lectures were not only in- 
structive,, but inspiring, and not a few of his students 
remember him with affection and respect as the most 
stimulating influence in their intellectual life. For 
fifteen years he gave unaided all the instruction in 
chemistry and chemical physics, both in the classroom 
and the laboratory. It was not until 1884, two years 
after the Experiment Station had been regularly organ- 
ized, that an assistant professorship was established, 
thus relieving him of much tutorial work and some 
other college duties. He continued, however, to lec- 
ture to the Senior Class on the chemistry of fertil- 
izers, the commercial industries, and on organic 
chemistry. 

Agassiz had insisted that there should be more than 
one professor of chemistry, so that each should have 
some time to make investigations; 'for believe me,' 
he says, *the professor who is exhausted by teaching 
cannot even learn what others do to keep up with the 



THE CALL TO AIVfflERST 33 

times, still less contribute to the advancement of 
knowledge in his science.' Fortunately Agassiz's fears 
proved to be groundless. Goessmann's sturdy indus- 
try and scientific activity were enormous, and the 
yearly output of the Chemical Department in contri- 
butions far exceeded that of all the others. Chemical 
work was always in progress in some form. It should 
be remembered, too, that all the time he carried on a 
large and exacting correspondence with promptness, 
read papers, delivered public lectures, and attended to 
the analytical work of his private laboratory. 

His first year at Amherst was marked by two highly 
interesting and instructive papers. The first of these, 
'On the Chemistry of Common Salt with Reference 
to our Home Resources,' was read at the Northampton 
session of the National Academy of Sciences. The 
second, 'On Salt and its Uses in Agriculture,' deliv- 
ered before the Massachusetts State Board of Agricul- 
ture, was his earliest paper on fertilization and may be 
considered, with one exception, his first direct contri- 
bution to agricultural chemistry. He also found time 
during that busy year to revise Scheerer's Blowpipe 
Manual, for use at the College. 

In his letters to President Clark, Goessmann had 
insisted on the importance of experimental research, 
and in December of 1869 he proposed a series of experi- 
ments 'to determine the comparative merits of the 
various sugar-producing plants — maple, sorghum, 
cane, and sugar-beet — raised upon our own soil.' 
These were the earliest field experiments conducted at 
the College. Early in 1870 he procured from Germany 



34 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

seeds of the thirteen best varieties of sugar-beets culti- 
vated in Saxony and Prussia, and showed by trial 
those best adapted to our soil and climate for the pro- 
duction of sugar and syrup from the root. These ex- 
periments were carried out between 1870 and 1874, 
and appear to have been the first scientific experiments 
in sugar-beet culture in this country. 

The reports ^ constitute an important contribution 
to agricultural literature. At the time they attracted 
wide attention, both in this country and Canada, lead- 
ing to similar experiments under his direction in New 
York and the Dominion, the latter at the request of 
the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and 
Public Works, with reference to the cultivation of the 
sugar-beet throughout the Province of Quebec. He 
demonstrated conclusively that the beet-sugar indus- 
try, which has added so largely to the wealth of France 
and Germany, can be profitably pursued in the north- 
ern states of North America and Canada; and that it is 
possible to grow beets of high sugar content in Massa- 
chusetts upon well-drained mellow loams (a rich, first- 
class barley soil) when proper attention is given to 
fertilization and cultivation. 

In 1870 the American Chemist was launched by 
Charles F. and William H. Chandler, with the assist- 
ance of several leading chemists, among whom were 
Alsberg, Barker, Bolton, Egleston, Joy, and Goess- 
mann. During the few years of its existence Goessmann 
was a regular contributor to its pages. 

* 'The report,' says a writer in the Scientific American, 'is one of the 
most valuable contributions to agricultural science that has been made in 
our country, and reflects great credit upon its author.' 



THE CALL TO AMHERST 35 

In January 1873 he printed an exhaustive paper on 
'Commercial Fertilizers.' Able and full of valuable 
facts and suggestions, it was pronounced the most im- 
portant essay on that subject which had yet appeared 
in this country. One of the immediate results of the 
discussion induced by this report was the enactment of 
a law — the first of its kind in the United States — 
regulating their manufacture and sale; or, in the trench- 
ant language of Goessmann, its author, the object of 
the law is to compel the dealers in these articles 'to 
state what they sell and to sell what they state.* This law 
for fertilizer control, compelling commercial manures 
to be sold according to a guaranteed composition to be 
ascertained by chemical analysis, thereby protecting 
the honest dealer and manufacturer as well as the 
farmer, revolutionized the fertilizer trade of the coun- 
try, and served as the model and inspiration for all 
subsequent legislation of the kind in other states. For 
thirty-five years Dr. Goessmann was charged with the 
administration and execution of this law in Massa- 
chusetts. 

Early in the year ht had been appointed Chemist 
of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. With 
the passage of the fertilizer law, he became ex officio a 
member of the Board and State Inspector of Fertil- 
izers. One of the duties of the State Inspector was to 
make an annual report to the Board of Agriculture. 
Professor Julius A. Stockhardt of Saxony, the distin- 
guished agricultural chemist, closes his review of 
Goessmann's first report on commercial fertilizers as 
follows: 'There can be no doubt that in America 



36 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

satisfactory and reliable fertilizers can be obtained, 
as they were in Germany, by strictly adhering to 
the chemical control adopted, and by providing for 
chemistry what it needs for efficient work — both 
confidence and ample means.' Professor At water 
called the report a very valuable pamphlet upon the 
sources of supply and quality of the more important 
fertilizing materials used in Massachusetts. 

'Stable-manure,' says Goessmann in this report, 
'is still the main fertilizer in ordinary farm operations, 
yet its peculiar value to-day rests more on its beneficial 
influence on the physical condition of the soil than on 
its effect on the chemical composition of the latter.' 
By a tabular statement of the ingredients he shows 
that, although the most complex of our common fer- 
tilizers, it is a complete manure only in exceptional 
cases, and that the permanent improvement of the 
soil depends almost entirely upon the introduction of 
other substances, such as the guanos and phosphates. 

'All friends of the College,' said President Clark of 
the second report, 'ought to be grateful for the pro- 
duction of a paper which combines most happily scien- 
tific knowledge with practical wisdom.' Hon. Marshall 
P. Wilder declared, that these two reports were 'worth 
more to the Commonwealth than all that had been 
expended for the maintenance of the Board since its 
first organization.' Among the well-known members 
of the Board of Agriculture at that time were Louis 
Agassiz, William S. Clark, Charles L. Flint, Charles G. 
Davis, William Knowlton, George B. Loring, Charles 
S. Sargent, Levi Stockbridge, Joseph N. Sturtevant, 



THE CALL TO A:MHERST 37 

and Marshall P. Wilder. A year later Paul A. Chad- 
bourne was appointed to fill the vacancy in the Board 
occasioned by the death of Agassiz. Standing pre- 
eminent among the technical and agricultural chem- 
ists of the country, Goessmann was the pride of the 
Board, as Hitchcock and Agassiz had been before him, 
and from 1874 till his death he was one of its most 
distinguished members and the principal contributor 
to its reports. 

In 1874 Goessmann began a systematic investiga- 
tion, extending over six years, of the chemical and 
physical condition of the salt marshes of the State, 
especially above the mouth of Green Harbor River 
in the town of Marshfield, and showed the best method 
of reclaiming and subduing them and making them 
available for tillage. His reports upon the composition 
of the soil and beach sand at Marshfield, and the chem- 
ical changes occurring as the result of diking, resulted 
within a short time in the reclamation of large tracts 
of a similar character with those under experiment at 
Green Harbor. The same year he made a thorough 
examination and trial for agricultural purposes of the 
South Carolina phosphates, both in the raw state and 
after treatment with acids. In 1876 and the two fol- 
lowing years experiments with various fertilizers upon 
sugar-cane were carried out under his direction at 
Calumet Plantation, Bayou Teche, Louisiana. 

While Robert Koch was pursuing his researches upon 
the bacillus of tuberculosis, Goessmann, assisted by 
Penhallow, was studying the relation of special fertil- 
izers to certain diseases of plants, hitherto supposed 



38 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

to be parasitic in origin. He maintained that the dis- 
ease of peach trees known as ' the yellows ' was due to 
impaired nutrition, and that after treatment with a 
phosphatic fertilizer in connexion with potassium 
chloride they become vigorous and healthy. 

During the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia 
one of the French Commissioners visited the College 
vineyards at Amherst, then under treatment with 
special fertilizers for the Phylloxera, and observed that 
nowhere had he seen more vigorous vines or better 
developed fruit, expressing surprise that such should 
be the case. ' We feed the vines and the Phylloxera 
too,' said Dr. Goessmann in reply; 'the excessive 
supply of food to the vines giving them a stimula- 
tion which enables them to resist successfully the 
effects of the parasite.' 

Between 1874 and 1876, with his able assistant, 
David P. Penhallow, he investigated the physiological 
effect of special chemical fertilizers upon the carbo- 
hydrate content of various fruit-bearing plants and 
the quality of the fruit. He studied especially the be- 
haviour of certain wild and cultivated grape-vines 
under the influence of different fertilizing agents, 
whereby the amount of acid, sugar, and ether in the 
fruit may be increased or modified and the formation 
of the aromatic principles peculiar to the species pro- 
moted even to the flavour of the fruit and the bouquet 
of wines. He found also *that the colouring matter 
which is characteristic of the ripe grape is already, in 
some concealed form, present at a very early stage of 
its growth.' These experiments on the relation of the 



THE CALL TO AMHERST 39 

mineral constituents of plants to the growth of the 
organs of vegetation — that is, the changes in their 
chemical composition during growth — and the qual- 
ity and ripening of fruits, he considered of great im- 
portance, as they might enable us to modify at will the 
relative proportions of acid, sugar, and ether in our 
fruits, and, thereby, produce practically new varieties 
of superior quality and market value. 

Goessmann co-operated also with President Clark 
and Professor Peabody in the study of the circulation 
and flow of sap in plants; with Professor Stockbridge 
in the study of special fertilization and the behaviour 
of soil waters; and with Professor Maynard in a series 
of field experiments with grape-vines and various fruit 
trees, extending over several years, for the purpose of 
testing the action of different kinds of plant-food on 
their productiveness in the quantity and quality of the 
fruit. In 1878 he published an interesting paper on the 
effect of girdling upon the growth, composition, and 
quality of grapes, proving conclusively that those 
growing on properly girdled branches ripen much 
earlier than those on ungirdled branches. During those 
busy years he found time to write several articles, 
chiefly on beet and cane-sugar, fertilizers, and salt, for 
Johnsons New Universal Cyclopcedia, for many years 
the standard work of its kind in America. 

In January 1878, with the approval of the Trustees, 
the Massachusetts Experimental Station was estab- 
lished at Amherst, Professor Stockbridge having gen- 
erously offered the sum of one thousand dollars to de- 
fray the necessary expenses of agricultural experiments 



40 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

for one year. This, although merely a private enter- 
prise, was the forerunner of the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station established by act of the 
legislature four years later, and of its successor, the 
Hatch Station. It should be remembered, however, 
that an experiment station, having as its aim system- 
atic research for the improvement of agriculture and 
the dissemination of practical knowledge relating 
thereto, had existed at the College — in fact, if not in 
name — since 1870. For eight years the Chemical 
Department had been conducting the work of an 
experiment station, and Dr. Goessmann's extensive 
experiments in sugar-beet culture, and the published 
results of that memorable investigation were its first 
fruits. 

As pointed out by Penhallow, the scientific observa- 
tions of Clark, Goessmann, and Stockbridge from 1870 
to 1876 constituted the real beginning of the Station 
and gave a powerful impetus to a movement which has 
since resulted in the establishment of similar stations 
throughout the United States and Canada. Looking 
back on those early years one marvels at their produc- 
tiveness, at the scope and quality of the work, and all 
the more as little or no provision then existed for meet- 
ing the necessary expenses of such operations. 

The value of agricultural experiment stations had 
long been recognized in Europe. As early as 1836 Jean- 
Baptiste Boussingault was conducting, at Bechelbronn 
in Alsace, his noted experiments with stock-feeding to 
test the efficiency of fodder rations. Seven years later, 
in 1843, John Bennet Lawes established at Rotham- 



THE CALL TO AMHERST 41 

sted, near London, his world-famous model station 
for the investigation of problems relating to plant- 
nutrition. It should be remembered, however, that 
Lawes had been experimenting since 1834, and hence 
the Rothamsted Station has been called the oldest 
agricultural station in the world. In 1849 Emil Wolff 
founded at Mockern in Saxony the first agricultural 
station in Germany, and by 1876 there were no fewer 
than sixty-two such stations in successful operation in 
the German Empire. The first agricultural experiment 
station in America was established at Middletown in 
1875, in the chemical laboratory of Wesley an Univer- 
sity. The Massachusetts station was among the earli- 
est — if not the earliest — to be associated with a 
land-grant college, and the second — the Connecticut 
station at New Haven, established in 1877, being the 
first — to be incorporated in the United States, But 
it should not be forgotten that field and feeding experi- 
ments were carried on in the sixties at both the Michi- 
gan and the Pennsylvania State Colleges — at the 
former by Robert C. Kedzie and Manly Miles, at the 
latter by Evan Pugh, then fresh from Rothamsted and 
the first president and professor of chemistry of the 
Pennsylvania State College. 

The Trustees, gladly accepting the gift of Professor 
Stockbridge, at once appointed a committee — con- 
sisting of President Clark, Professor Stockbridge, 
Professor Goessmann, Secretary Flint, and Hon. 
Richard Goodman — with full power to act as the 
managers of the station. 

Subjects for scientific observation and investigation 



42 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

were now assigned to Professor Stockbridge and Pro- 
fessor Goessmann, respectively, the results of which 
appeared in the next annual report of the College. 
Those assigned to Professor Stockbridge included 
observations on rainfall, percolation and evaporation 
of water from the soil, temperature of soil and air, 
deposition of dew on the soil and plant. Dr. Goess- 
mann undertook an examination of the Early Amber 
Cane, — a variety of sorghum produced in Minnesota, 
— its sugar constituents, and the practical method of 
working the crop. His experiments seemed to show 
conclusively that this variety of sorghum cannot be 
profitably cultivated in Massachusetts for the produc- 
tion of dry sugar, though the yield and quality of the 
syrup were satisfactory. 

The problems relating to the nutrition of plants had 
long occupied Goessmann's thought. He now turned 
his attention more particularly to those of animal 
nutrition or the chemical relations which exist between 
animal life and animal food. His earliest investigation 
in this field was on the relative value of several varie- 
ties of corn for feeding purposes, and the results and 
conclusions reached were embodied in two papers read 
before the Board of Agriculture in 1879 and 1882. 
These experiments, and others of a similar character, 
extending over a series of years, were undertaken in 
order to determine the efficiency and feeding-value of 
the various kinds of fodder-crops and substances and 
thereby to establish a rational system of stock-feeding. 

On the 12th of May 1882, by act of the Legislature, 
the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station 



THE CALL TO AMHERST 43 

was established at Amherst for the scientific investi- 
gation of problems relating to agriculture. The Board 
of Control of the new station organized for work in 
July, and in November Dr. Goessmann was appointed 
Director and Chemist. From 1888 to 1895 he was 
ex officio a member of the Board, and from 1892 to 1895 
Treasurer of the Station. In 1895 the Massachusetts 
Station became merged in the so-called Hatch Experi- 
ment Station of the College, and he retired from the 
directorship with the title of Honorary Director, and 
was placed in charge of the chemical-fertilizer and 
fertilizer-control work, a position he filled until his 
retirement in 1907. Happily, the 'Hatch' has since 
been dropped and the earlier and more euphonious 
name restored. 

In the early years Professor Manly Miles and Pro- 
fessor Samuel T. Maynard were associated with Dr. 
Goessmann in the work of the Station — the former as 
superintendent of field and stock experiments, the 
latter as superintendent of horticultural experiments, 
microscopist, and draughtsman. In 1888 Dr. James E. 
Humphrey was appointed vegetable physiologist and 
mycologist, and in 1892 Dr. Joseph B. Lindsey became 
associate chemist. These investigators contributed 
many papers in various lines of research to the bulle- 
tins and annual reports of the Director. 



CHAPTER IV 

INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 

WoHLER and his co-workers had inspired young 
Goessmann with the spirit of investigation. He had 
not been at the College long before he began a study of 
Massachusetts agriculture, and the application of 
chemistry thereto. During his long period of service 
he investigated a large number of agricultural prob- 
lems, the more important of which are referred to 
in the pages which follow. 

I. PRODUCTION OF BEET SUGAR IN MASSACHUSETTS 

First Paper. Report on the production of beet sugar 
as an agricultural enterprise in Massachusetts. {Eighth 
Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1871.) 

In this paper he called attention to the large amount 
of sugar imported into the United States, reviewed 
briefly the sugar-cane industry of Louisiana, and then 
gave a most instructive account of the entire method of 
sugar-beet cultivation and manufacture in Europe and 
of the general condition of the European sugar indus- 
try. He declared that the success of the beet-sugar 
industry in the United States depended, first, 'on a 
careful selection of superior seeds of the best foreign 
varieties, and subsequently of the choicest seed beets; 
and, secondly, on the proper choice of lands which are 
not only adapted to the cultivation of root-crops in 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 45 

general, but are in such a state of fertility as to enable 
the farmer to supply the kind and amount of plant- 
food required for the production of a special crop for a 
special purpose.' 

In an appendix to the report are presented photo- 
graphs and weights of different varieties of beets grown 
upon the College farm and the sugar content of the 
same. 

Second Paper. Report on sugar beets raised upon 
the College farm. {Ninth Report of the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College, 1872.) 

This paper gave the results of his own experiments 
in the field and laboratory along three distinct lines: 
(a) methods for producing good sugar beets in accord- 
ance with the rules stated in his previous report; (6) a 
study of the chemical properties of the sugar beets 
grown on the College farm, with reference to their fit- 
ness for beet-sugar manufacture; and (c) a study by 
actual tests of the amount of sugar available for com- 
mercial purposes. 

The paper described in detail the selection of soil, 
method of planting, care of the crop during the growing 
period, and method of fertilization. He also discussed 
the effect of potash salts on the basis of German inves- 
tigations. He further presented data relative to the 
weights of the different varieties of beets grown upon 
the College farm and their sugar content at different 
stages of growth; also the amount of nitrogenous sub- 
stance and ash contained in the juices. In the process 
of extracting the sugar he followed, on a small scale, 



46 CHABLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

the method in use at the time in foreign beet-sugar fac- 
tories for the removal of the sugar, and found that 
substantially 1,900 pounds could be secured from an 
average acre of beets. He stated that, if the same 
equipment were available as employed in foreign sugar 
factories, he believed that beets raised in Massachu- 
setts could be made to yield as high as 2,270 pounds of 
sugar per acre, the amount under favourable conditions 
then secured in Germany. His object in conducting 
these experiments was to demonstrate that by follow- 
ing the methods of cultivation then in vogue in Ger- 
many and France it was perfectly feasible to develop 
the sugar-beet industry in Massachusetts. 

In the Tenth Report of the College John C. Dillon, the 
farm superintendent, gives an illustrated description 
of the machinery, imported from Germany under the 
advice of Goessmann for the cultivation of the sugar 
beet, which included a beet planter, several beet culti- 
vators, and a beet digger. 

Third Paper. Report on experiments with sugar 
beets. {Eleventh Report of the Massachusetts Agricul- 
tural College, 1874.) The paper was devoted to the re- 
sults of four field experiments with beets conducted on 
the College groimds, and also in New York State and 
in Canada. 

In Experiment I, roots of the Vilmorin and Electoral 
varieties were grown upon land which had produced a 
crop of beets the previous season, and which received 
as a special fertilizer kainit and bone superphosphate. 
The seed was collected and the next year planted on 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 47 

suitable land properly fertilized. The juice from the 
beets contained some 14 per cent, cane sugar, and the 
beets were equal to the best thus far produced at the 
College. 

In Experiment II, 100 pounds of beet seed were 
imported from Saxony. Four acres of beets were 
planted from this seed on the College farm. Ten pounds 
of the same seed were sent to the New York Agricul- 
tural Society and planted by six farmers in different 
parts of the state. Samples of the beets grown were 
sent to Goessmann, who found the juice to contain all 
the way from 7.37 to 15.10 per cent, of sugar. The 
wide variations he believed to be due to the method 
of fertilization. Highly nitrogenous manure, or the 
application of partly decomposed stable-manure in 
the spring, was considered particularly objectionable, 
causing an increase in the amount of impurity in 
the juice and preventing a favourable development of 
the sugar. He stated that a satisfactory juice should 
not contain over one part of impurity to five parts 
of sugar. He laid particular stress upon planting the 
beets in deep mellow loams that had not been too 
heavily manured. The application of well-rotted stable 
manure in the spring, or preferably the year previous 
to planting the beets, was advised, and supplementing 
the same with sulphate of potash and superphosphate. 

Experiment III was conducted on the College farm. 
He found fresh horse-manure to be quite unfavourable 
to the development of cane sugar. Land that had re- 
ceived stable manure two years previously, and that 
receiving sulphate of potash, produced beets containing 



48 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

the highest percentages of sugar (12.19 and 12.78 per 
cent). 

Experiment IV gives the results of tests made by 
Goessmann of beets grown in Canada under the super- 
vision of the Canadian Department of Agriculture. 
The sugar percentage varied from 8.83 to 11.38. He 
concluded that a stricter compliance with the well- 
endorsed rules of cultivation will, no doubt, produce 
a higher and thus a satisfactory quality of sugar beets 
in both localities. 

Fourth Paper. On the cultivation of the sugar beet 
for the manufacture of sugar. {Agriculture of Massa- 
chusetts, 1879.) 

Professor Goessmann presented a comprehensive 
paper, giving the results of his experiments with sugar 
at the College and also a review of the best methods of 
sugar-beet cultivation, manufacture, and utilization 
of by-products which were employed in Europe at that 
time. His several papers attracted the attention of 
thoughtful men all over the country as well as in 
Canada. He believed that the production of beet sugar 
would, at some time, be a Massachusetts industry. 
The only difficulty he foresaw was in securing co- 
operation between the farmer and the capitalist. At 
the conclusion of his final paper on the subject, he says, 
that the 'future prospect of the beet-sugar manufac- 
ture rests largely with the decision of our farmers, 
whether they are willing to unite with our capitalists 
in sharing the responsibility of the new industry.' 

Goessmann was a pioneer in advocating the beet- 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 49 

sugar industry in the United States, and although he 
never saw his prophecy realized in Massachusetts be- 
cause of the more profitable use of the land for other 
crops, his teachings concerning the cultivation and 
fertilization of the beet hold true at the present time, 
and he lived to see a large beet-sugar industry devel- 
oped in California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Michi- 
gan. The present area in the United States devoted to 
sugar beets is some 624,000 acres which produced in 
1915, in round numbers, 862,800 tons of sugar. ^ 

II. RECLAMATION OF SALT MARSHES 

First Paper. On the best mode of subduing and util- 
izing for tillage the salt marshes in this state, after they 
are drained. {Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1874.) In 
this paper he 'gives the origin, the general character, 
and the agricultural history of a few successfully re- 
claimed sea-marshes of Europe, for the purpose of 
rendering more prominent some striking features of 
similarity which exist between them and the recently 
diked marshes above the mouth of Green Harbor 
River in the township of Marshfield, Plymouth County, 
Massachusetts.' He described in some detail 'grad- 
ual changes which the original vegetation was under- 
going since the water of the ocean has been excluded, 
in consequence of the construction of an eiHicient dike, 
pointing out on the same occasion some of the causes 
which seemed to control the still varying or broken-up 
aspect of the present natural growth in the different 
sections of the salt marshes.' 

^ Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1915, p. 497. 



50 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

From a study of water taken from the subsoil in 
different parts of the marsh lands, of samples of soil, 
and of the crops raised the first season, he advised as 
absolutely indispensable the adoption of an efficient 
system of drainage, after which attention should be 
given to the improvement of the chemical and physical 
condition of the soil by thorough cultivation. 

Second Paper. Report on the salt marshes above the 
mouth of Green Harbor River in the township of 
Marshfield, Plymouth Coimty, Massachusetts. {Agri- 
culture of Massachusetts, 1875.) 

This paper was a continuation of Dr. Goessmann's 
report on the reclaimed salt marshes in Marshfield. 
As a result of drainage he found an improvement over 
the previous year in the composition and level of the 
subsoil waters, resulting in a change in the colour of 
the surface soil and the rapid decomposition of organic 
matter underlying the sod. Wherever drainage was poor 
on account of a hard clay subsoil, vegetation was killed 
or seriously injured by an excessive amount of salines 
in the soil. Only a small part of the best-drained land 
was suitable for general cultivation as yet, the greater 
part of it being seeded to grass without ploughing. 
Both grass and vegetables gave promise of good crops 
until largely destroyed by grasshoppers in late June. 

He recommended that one general plan for the 
drainage of the entire area of the marshes be devised 
and put in operation, and that the land be thoroughly 
ploughed wherever the sod became too spongy to sup- 
port a good grass crop. 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 51 

Third Paper. On the improvement of salt marshes. 
{Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1876.) 

This was a further report on the Marshfield marsh 
lands. The condition of the land and crops was en- 
couraging, although some failures were experienced, 
and similar failures were to be expected for some years 
until the land had been under cultivation long enough 
to get the soil into better physical condition. The ex- 
amination of soil and of drainage waters showed that 
inefficient drainage even in the vicinity of the river 
was still the main cause of crop-failures. He stated that 
all attempts to establish a rational system of tillage 
would fail so long, and in the same degree, as efficient 
drainage was neglected. He then outlined a plan for a 
drainage system of which the river with its tributaries 
should be the centre from which the main ditches 
should start, and to which all ditches should have an 
outlet. The old ditches in many instances might be- 
come links in this new system. He again recommended 
ploughing as soon as the soil failed to produce a good 
grass crop due to the breaking down of the old sod. 
He made no definite recommendations as to a system 
of crop rotation, but advised that for some years crops 
should be selected with a view to improving the 
mechanical condition of the soil, and that a rotation of 
crops should be chosen, with the aim not only of econo- 
mizing the latent plant-food, but also of preserving a 
liberal amount of organic matter in the soil. 

Fourth Paper. The improvement of salt marshes in 
the town of Marshfield, made together with George M. 



52 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

Baker. {Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1877.) This is a 
report of progress in which is shown that of the total 
area of 1,250 acres of marsh land, some 250 acres were 
under cultivation, including 50 acres which had been 
ploughed. A partial summary of the various crops raised 
is given. He placed great emphasis upon a more thor- 
ough system of drainage. After this had been accom- 
plished he felt sure that the marsh area would become 
very valuable for agricultural purposes. Attention was 
called to the claim for damages likely to be made for 
alleged injuries to the harbour as a result of drainage 
of the marshes. This matter had resulted in causing 
some owners to refrain from further drainage plans 
until it was settled. 

Fifth Paper. The same title as fourth paper. (Agri- 
culture of Massachusetts, 1878.) The dike which was 
constructed to keep out the sea-water proved its 
worth on the entire area of marsh and 'shows, year 
after year, more decided signs of a progressing decay 
within its accumulated vegetable matter, in partic- 
ular in that portion of it which directly underlies 
the surface growth.' He regrets that a more general 
drainage plan has not been adopted, feeling sure that 
if the matter was undertaken in a thorough manner 
together with a liberal use of the plough, the marsh 
area would become very productive. 

Sixth and Seventh Papers. The same title as fourth pa- 
per. (Agriculture of Massachusetts, IS79 and 1S80.) Brief 
reports of the same tenor as fourth and fifth papers. 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 53 

The year 1880 proved unfortunate for crop-production 
on the reclaimed areas because of very dry weather 
during the early part of the season. He concludes this 
series of papers as follows : ' We believe the community 
never had more confidence in the richness and fertility 
of the soil than they have to-day. Evidently, nothing 
but a favourable decision of the courts is needed to 
secure outside capital for more general and rapid devel- 
opment of the agricultural resources of the reclaimed 
sea-marshes at Marshfield.' 

III. RELATIVE VALUE OF SEVERAL VARIETIES OP CORN 
FOR FEEDING PURPOSES 

(Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1879.) The paper be- 
gins with an historical account of the work done on 
animal nutrition, dividing it roughly into four periods. 

The early attempts to inquire into chemical rela- 
tions between animal life and animal food, beginning 
with Lavoisier in 1780 and continuing for the next 
fifty years, were of but little practical value to agricul- 
turists, because of the uncertainty of the chemical 
methods used, and also because stock-feeding had not 
at that time received much attention. 

The second period began in 1836 with the work of 
Boussingault and Liebig. The most important service 
rendered by Boussingault to the science of rational 
stock-feeding consists in the introduction of the chem- 
ical analysis as an essential requirement for the deter- 
mination of the feeding value of an article of fodder. 
Boussingault was of the opinion that the nitrogen alone 
of the fodder constituents was of direct feeding value, 



54 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

while the non-nitrogenous materials served merely as 
the support of animal respiration. Liebig, on the other 
hand, recognized that no single constituent of a plant 
can support animal life — neither nitrogenous matter 
nor fat, neither sugar nor mineral substance: it re- 
quires a certain definite proportion of each for different 
classes of animals, and even for different conditions of 
one and the same animal. 

To this period belongs the practice of classifying 
agricultural fodder-crops by making hay the standard 
for the determination of their relative feeding value. 
At first this was merely a comparison of the market 
values of different fodders; but later the basis of com- 
parison was changed to make the chemical analysis of 
good meadow hay the basis of the classification of 
fodder crops. This method of comparison continued in 
force for many years, but became more and more un- 
satisfactory as a greater variety of fodder crops became 
common. 

The efforts of these two leaders in rational agricul- 
ture (Boussingault and Liebig) to turn chemistry to 
practical account in agricultural operations, soon led to 
a more general introduction of agricultural experiment 
stations. Much analytical work and many feeding 
experiments conducted at these experiment stations, 
showed that no one plant can furnish a standard for a 
general fodder-valuation, and that no single definite 
numerical expression can state the relative or absolute 
feeding value of any fodder. Gradually it became clear 
that a knowledge of the chemical composition of the 
fodder articles alone was not suflBcient to determine 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 55 

their exact feeding value, but that the degree of their 
digestibility exerted a controlling influence on their 
qualification to support animal life. 

Grouven conducted a series of experiments (1860- 
1864) which have revolutionized the science of stock- 
feeding. He concluded that a rational and economical 
system of feeding farm stock required the following in- 
formation; 'First, how much nitrogenous matter, 
how much carbohydrate and fatty matter, and how 
much mineral substance in a digestible form does 
each kind of animal require, not only in its various 
stages of growth, but also for every purpose it is 
designed to answer? Second, how much of each of 
these four groups of substances is present in a di- 
gestible state in our various articles of fodder? ' Aside 
from his own contributions to this subject, Grou- 
ven attempted to bring the valuable results of pre- 
vious scientific research within reach of the practical 
farmer. 

Dr. Goessmann then explained the terms used in 
reporting the results of his analysis of different kinds 
of corn. All plants, including most of our common 
articles of fodder, contain four groups of nutritive 
compounds: protein or nitrogenous substance, carbo- 
hydrate or non-nitrogenous substance, fats, and min- 
eral constituents. These are present in absolutely 
and relatively varying quantities in each plant and 
part of plant, and serve in absolutely and relatively 
different proportions for the support of animal life. 
The nutritive ratio of a fodder substance is the numer- 
ical relation of its nitrogenous substance compared 



56 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

with the sum of its non-nitrogenous digestible organic 
constituents, fat included. 

Then follows a detailed report of the analyses of 
eleven varieties of corn, including analyses of different 
parts of the corn plant. From these analyses and from 
a knowledge of the conditions under which the differ- 
ent samples were grown, he concludes that the differ- 
ence in feeding value of the different samples is due as 
much to the method of cultivation as to difference of 
variety. The analyses indicate that the feeding value 
of corn-cobs is equal to that of some grasses, and is 
greater where the final processes of growth are stopped 
by the weather. They are especially valuable ground 
with the corn kernel. 

The paper ends with a brief description of the 
method of making and feeding ensilage, together with 
the analyses of several samples of corn at the time of 
putting into the silo and after fermentation. 

rV. THE SYSTEM OF PRESERVING GREEN FOOD IN SILOS 

{Agriculture of Massachusetts y 1880.) This paper 
calls attention first to the fact that opposite views of 
the value of the silo system are held, and explains this 
as due to a misapprehension regarding the composition 
and feeding value of the ensilage as compared with the 
original green crop, and to a different basis for the 
estimation of the economic points involved. 

Goessmann then takes up the use of the silo system 
in Europe. A general description of the method of 
preserving green feeds in silos and the kinds of feeds 
for which this treatment is recommended follows. The 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 57 

success of the operation depends upon the dryness of 
the pit in which the material is packed, the careful 
packing down of the mass in the silo, especially along 
the sides, and the keeping out of the air, particularly 
during the earlier period of fermentation. During the 
process of fermentation the green feed loses weight, due 
to the loss of more or less organic matter and water. 
Some of the starchy or saccharine substances are 
changed to lactic acid, and sometimes to alcohols and 
fatty acids. The nitrogen percentage is usually higher 
than that of the green feed. 

After this general discussion of the method, he de- 
scribes a number of European experiments with ensil- 
ing different crops, including clover, the leaves and tops 
of beet-roots, and sugar-beet pulp and straw combined 
with a green crop, giving in each case the chemical 
changes which took place in the product. 

From these examples he concludes: 'That the silo 
system furnishes no exception to the rule that our 
practical modes of preserving fodder are accompanied 
with a loss in quantity and quality of valuable plant 
constituents, and that any attainable higher feeding 
value is almost invariably secured at the sacrifice of 
quantity. The question of waste is simply a matter of 
degree when comparing existing modes of keeping fod- 
der with that of the silo system.' 

There are some advantages which the silo system 
possesses over other systems. It is independent of the 
weather. This is of particular importance in the case of 
juicy plants. Exposure of green crops to rain, even for 
a few days during hay-making, alters the quality of 



58 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSIVIANN 

the hay more than is commonly supposed. Fodder 
plants like clover lose largely in value during hay- 
making, due to the loss of leaves. Both of these sources 
of loss are avoided in the use of the silo. The quality 
and quantity of ensilage made with ordinary care suf- 
fers mainly from but one thing, fermentation. Admit- 
ting that this waste may be greater than that of any 
mode of preserving fodder, there are some advantages 
which ensilage possesses for which it is difficult to find 
an exact numerical value as compared with dry fodder 
of the same plant: namely, it increases the rate of 
digestibility of otherwise indigestible parts of the 
green fodder, thereby compensating somewhat for 
the loss of valuable soluble organic matter; and the 
ensilage of those crops for which the system is 
recommended is almost invariably more acceptable 
to animals than the dry fodder. The silo system is 
not a substitute for existing modes of preserving 
fodder, but will prove a most valuable assistance to 
increase our chances of securing larger quantities of 
good fodder. 

v. THE INSPECTION OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 

Commercial fertilizers began to attract attention in 
the United States as early as 1853. In that year Sam- 
uel W. Johnson published the now historic article on 
Superphosphate of Lime.^ As chemist to the Connec- 
ticut Agricultural Society from 1856 to 1861, and later 
as chemist to the Connecticut State Board of Agricul- 
ture, Johnson issued reports which included numerous 

1 Country Gentleman, March 1853. 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 59 

analyses of commercial fertilizers then being sold in 
that state. 

As early as 1852 one notes references to the use of 
Peruvian guano and superphosphate of lime in the 
report of the Massachusetts State Board of Agricul- 
ture. In 1865 Dr. James R. Nichols,^ in an essay before 
the State Board, discussed in an admirable way the 
subject of plant-nutrition and made especial reference 
to phosphate from bones, potash from ashes, and the 
probability of plants taking their nitrogen from the air. 
In 1868 Col. Mason C. Weld ^ delivered an address be- 
fore the same society on Commercial Fertilizers, reflect- 
ing the best knowledge of the day. He showed Peruvian 
guano to be retailing for $62.50 a ton, superphosphate 
of lime for $55, ground bone and ground fish for $45, 
nitrate of soda for $120, and sulphate of ammonia for 
$170. He also stated that many brands of highly 
recommended fertilizer mixtures were being offered for 
sale and were generally purchased by the poorest farm- 
ers, whereas in Europe such conditions were reversed. 
Dr. Nichols^ delivered another address before the 
State Board in 1870, entitled * Manures, General and 
Special.' He published a number of analyses made by 
himself of ashes, fish, and several fertilizer mixtures, 
and commented upon the high prices of many of these 
substances and the frauds frequently practised. In 
1871 another address by Nichols^ followed, entitled 
*Food of Plants and Sources of Supply,' which was 

^ Agriculture of Massachusetts, Fourteenth Report, p. 228. 
2 Ibid., Sixteenth Report, p. 93. 
' Ibid., Eighteenth Report, p. 179. 
* Ibid., Nineteenth Report, p. 80. 



60 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

discussed by dijBferent members of the Board and indi- 
cated the interest then being taken in the subject of 
commercial fertihzers in this state. In 1872 Andrew 
H. Ward/ read a paper before the State Board on 
'Manures and Fertihzers,' which caused consider- 
able discussion by Col. William S. Clark and others, 
and emphasized the uncertainty of our knowledge con- 
cerning the value of commercial fertilizers in Massa- 
chusetts markets, and the great need of a systematic 
inspection. 

Professor Goessmann, in the Tenth Report of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural College (1872), presented 
a very comprehensive unoflBcial report on commercial 
fertilizers, in which he summarized the knowledge on 
plant-nutrition and the use of fertilizers then prevailing 
in Europe, called attention to the imperative need of 
a law governing the sale of fertilizers in Massachusetts, 
and outlined the salient requirements of such a law. 
He further presented a number of his own analyses of 
the fertilizers found in the local markets, and discussed 
their relative commercial values and selling prices. In 
part II of this report he gave an excellent exposition 
of the formation, composition, and value of the re- 
cently discovered potash salts of Germany. 

The first fertilizer law ^ in the United States requir- 
ing an official inspection of fertilizers was passed by the 

1 Agriculture of Massachusetts, Twentieth Report, p. 165. 

2 On February 5, 1873, it was voted by the State Board of Agriculture 
'that Col. W. S. Clark, Professor Goessmann, and Secretary C. L. Flint 
constitute a committee to appear before the legislature in behalf of a law 
controlling the sale of fertilizers.' The records of the State Board fail to 
give further information; one may conclude, however, that the law was the 
result of the combined efforts of the above committee. 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 61 

Massachusetts Legislature on May 26, 1873/ to become 
operative October 1 (Acts of 1873, Chapter 312). It 
required all fertilizers sold in the state to have a guar- 
antee of composition attached, and provided a penalty 
for failure to do this. The execution of the law was 
placed under the supervision of the State Board of 
Agriculture, and the chemist of the Board was made 
state inspector of fertilizers. The fee was fifteen dollars 
for each analysis made, and was to be paid by the man- 
ufacturer to the state inspector to cover the cost of 
the inspection. The inspector was required to report 
any violation of the act to the secretary of the Board, 
who was empowered to institute legal proceedings. 

Professor Goessmann, by virtue of his office, became 
the inspector, and published his first report in the 
twenty -first annual report of Agriculture of Massachu- 
setts. Owing to the lateness of the season when the law 
went into effect (October 1), the report was of neces- 
sity limited in its scope. He reported the analysis and 
discussed the value of Peruvian and fish guanos, 
slaughter-house residues, superphosphates, sulphate of 
ammonia, nitrate of soda, and German potash salts. 
He advised the manufacturers to pay more attention 
to their analytical statements, and particularly to im- 
prove their methods of manufacture. In one of his 
early reports is found the following statement: 'These 
identical articles cost the farmers . . . one-half more 
than they ought to.' The inspection was transferred 

* A preceding law enacted March 10, 1869 (Acts of 1869, Chapter 63), 
required that all fertilizers be marked with the name of the manufacturer 
and a statement of the analysis, and prescribed a fine for those violating 
it. No official inspector was appointed nor were funds provided for its 
execution. 



62 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

from the chemist of the Board in 1883 to the director 
and chemist of the newly organized State Experiment 
Station, of which he was the head. After the consoli- 
dation of the state and Hatch stations in 1896, the 
president of the College, as director of the combined 
stations, became oflBcially the inspector, but the execu- 
tion of the work was carried out by Professor Goess- 
mann as chemist of the Station, and he continued it 
until his retirement in 1907. 

In the early years he made his own collection of 
samples and performed much of the analytical work. 
As the demands upon his time increased, he employed 
as aids, both in collecting samples and as chemists, 
recent graduates of the College who had been trained 
under him, and it is recalled that in the summer of 
1884 the writer made practically all of the nitrogen 
determinations at the College laboratory by the old 
soda-lime method, and at the end of each day carried 
the bulbs containing the resulting chloride of ammonia 
to the professor's private laboratory where the process 
was completed by the professor himself. 

The reports of the inspection issued by Professor 
Goessmann from year to year grew in importance, and 
were regarded by farmers as a strong bulwark of pro- 
tection against misrepresentation and fraud. In fact, 
the more progressive manufacturers soon recognized 
the justice of his statements, endorsed the law, and 
supported him in his work. One cannot estimate in 
money the value of the services thus rendered to the 
citizens of Massachusetts by Goessmann and his co- 
workers. It has been said by educated men who pos- 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 63 

sessed an intelligent grasp of the situation, that this 
work alone was worth to the state the entire cost of the 
Agricultural College. 

VI. THE VALUE OF EARLY AMBER SORGHUM AS A 
SUGAR PRODUCING PLANT 

{Sixteenth Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, 1879.) This experiment was conducted to ascer- 
tain the value of the Minnesota Early Amber Sorghum 
upon the soil of Massachusetts. Seed was secured 
through the United States Department of Agriculture, 
and one acre was grown at the College and about 
twenty acres in the vicinity. The apparatus used for 
crushing and pressing the cane and evaporating the 
juice was the same as that used in Minnesota. Only 
such apparatus and methods were used as could be 
employed by any intelligent farmer with a moderate 
outlay of money. 

Dr. Goessmann's part in this experiment was to 
study the changes which the cane undergoes during 
the later period of its growth, in order to learn the time 
when the sugar becomes more prominent in its juice; 
to ascertain the rate at which this percentage increases, 
and to determine the particular point in the ripening 
process of the plant when the largest amount of sugar 
is present; and to notice finally the changes which the 
cane subsequently sustains in regard to the quantity 
and quality of its saccharine matter. 

The results obtained from the cane raised upon the 
College farm led to the following conclusions: Grape 
sugar appears at an early stage in the growth of the 



64 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

plant, and increases to three or four per cent, before 
the cane sugar is formed. The cane sugar is first notice- 
able when the flower-stalks begin to be visible above 
the leaves, and its amount increases until the seeds are 
of full size but still soft. The relative proportion of 
grape and cane sugars was generally about three to 
seven. The better quality of the juice in the later life 
of the plant is due rather to a loss of moisture than to 
the continued formation of sugar. The cane sugar 
changes gradually into grape sugar after the plants 
are cut. 

The best way to secure the full benefit of the crop for 
syrup and sugar manufacture is to begin cutting when 
the seeds are full-grown but still soft, and to grind 
without delay. In the process of converting the juice 
into syrup, the relative proportion of the cane sugar 
and grape sugar was seriously altered, showing this 
plant to be unsuitable for the production of sugar. The 
average yield per acre was 160 to 170 gallons of syrup, 
which was yellowish in colour and somewhat peculiar 
in taste, though pleasant and quite generally liked. 

Observations of the cane brought in from surround- 
ing farms confirmed the conclusions drawn from the 
examination of the cane from the College field. The 
injurious changes which the cane undergoes after be- 
ing cut were quite conspicuous. A trial made to see 
whether it would be better economy to grind the cane 
with the leaves or without, showed that the saving of 
labour in the field by omitting the stripping did not 
compensate for the loss suffered in the clogging of the 
mill and the waste of juice when the leaves were left on. 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 65 

There followed a comparison of the expenses and 
returns in the case of the acre of the sorghum raised on 
the College farm, from which the conclusion was drawn 
that there should be a profit of $35 per acre. This sur- 
plus might be increased by an improvement in the 
yield which it would be possible to obtain, as in some 
instances the yield had been as high as 240 gallons of 
syrup per acre. He concludes : 'The presence of a large 
amount of grape sugar in all the later stages of the 
Early Amber, as well as of all other varieties of this 
species, is a serious feature in the composition of the 
juice, impairing greatly the chances for a copious sepa- 
ration of the cane sugar by simple modes of treatment. 
The necessity of applying more costly apparatus, and 
engaging skilled labour to secure the larger portion of 
the cane sugar, if once conceded, places the production 
of dry sugar from sorghum beyond the scope of general 
farm enterprise.' 

The above conclusions have stood the test of time, 
for further attempts to utilize this plant as a commer- 
cial source of sugar have resulted in failure. 

VII. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CHEMISTRY OF FRUIT 
CULTURE * 

First Paper. (Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1879.) 
Dr. Goessmann opens the paper with a few general 
statements, bringing out the fact that the principles of 
fertilization, which had been studied for some time in 
the case of most of the farm crops, had not received 
attention as applied to fruits. Neither the chemical 

^ In co-operation with Samuel T. Maynard. 



I 



66 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

composition of the fruits themselves nor of the plants 
was definitely known, nor had the effect of different 
fertilizers been observed. Judging from past experi- 
ence in general farm-management, it seemed wise to 
assume that much benefit may accrue to fruit culture, 
and horticulture generally, by studying the relations 
which exist between the composition of the soil and 
the ash constituents of the fruits grown upon it. Exper- 
iments, therefore, were conducted with grapes in the 
College vineyard, and the following subjects proposed 
for careful analytical investigation : — 

1. What are the chief characteristic organic and in- 
organic constituents of the Concord grape as compared 
with those of the wild varieties of Vitis labrusca (L.), 
the vine from which the Concord originated? 

2. To what extent is it possible to alter the quantity 
and relative proportions of the ash constituents in the 
fruit of both varieties; and, in case of such alterations, 
what are the changes which are likely to result with 
regard to their most characteristic organic constitu- 
ents, such as sugar and acid? 

He describes the method of carrying out the experi- 
ment, and gives the detailed analysis of the juice, wood, 
seed, skins, and pulp, stems and young branches. He 
found that the application of potash and phosphoric 
acid largely increased the amount of these two constit- 
uents in the ash, and was accompanied by an increase 
of sugar and a decrease of free acid. 

Later, experiments were conducted in girdling vineSy 
to secure definite data regarding the best methods to 
employ, and the effect of the practice on the vine and 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 67 

fruit. The results of this investigation led to the fol- 
lowing conclusions : — 

The best results were secured when the cut was made 
between July 1 and August 1, and kept open by a sec- 
ond or third removal of the healing growth. If the first 
cut is made at least one-half inch wide, this second or 
third cutting may not be necessary, as it will not heal 
over so rapidly. No change was noticed in the vine or 
fruit below the point where the girdling took place. 
Vines girdled two years before retained their vig- 
our. The only permanent effect noticed was the earlier 
ripening of the fruit from such vines. As the price 
obtained from grapes early in the season is several 
cents per pound higher than that received later, and 
as the grapes matured some two weeks earlier on the 
girdled vines, the practice was considered a profitable 
one. The grapes showed an increase in size over those 
grown on ungirdled vines, and were of practically the 
same chemical composition. 

Experiments conducted to determine which of the 
buds — those nearest the main canes upon new wood, 
those in the middle of the canes, or those at the ex- 
tremities — would produce the best bunches of grapes, 
showed that the bunches of grapes from the different 
buds were of nearly the same size. 

Second Paper. Experiments with special fertilizers 
in fruit culture. {Agriculture of Massachusetts , 1884.) 
The paper begins with a short discussion of the desir- 
ability of studying the composition of fruits with a 
view of ascertaining the relations existing between the 



68 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

kind and amount of available plant-food in the soil, 
and the relative and absolute quantity of the various 
soil-elements contained in the fruit raised upon it. The 
absolute amount of the mineral constituents in plants 
of the same variety may differ widely without chang- 
ing the character of the plants; but a change in the 
relative proportion of the various mineral constituents 
almost always affects the quantity of some of the 
organic constituents, such as starch, sugar, acids, etc. 
This fact would seem to show that each of the various 
mineral constituents has a special function in the 
growth of plants. *The more we learn of the specific 
functions of each essential mineral constituent of 
plants, the better will we be prepared to perfect our 
system of manuring; to cultivate with a view of devel- 
oping desirable qualities in the crops, and to counter- 
act the serious influence of an abnormal composition 
of the sap on the health of plants.' 

He further describes an experiment with currants 
conducted at the College, in which these bushes, fertil- 
ized in different ways and unfertilized, were compared. 
From the analyses of the fruit it was evident that pot- 
ash was the only ash constituent in which the soil was 
deficient. The addition of this element in every in- 
stance increased the percentage of potash in the fruit 
as well as the amount of vegetable matter and sugar. 
The colour of the berries was also improved. The in- 
crease of potash in the currant was invariably accom- 
panied by a corresponding decrease of phosphoric acid, 
and of lime in particular, thus confirming his previous 
observations with other fruits. The most striking 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 69 

alterations in the mineral constituents of the currant 
were produced by muriate of potash. 

In the same article he gave a brief summary of 
his experience with the use of muriate of potash on 
peach trees suffering from 'yellows.' He believed this 
trouble to be due to an abnormal condition of the sap 
in so far as its mineral constituents were concerned, 
which resulted in the development of a fungous growth. 
He found that the cells in the young branches of the 
diseased trees contained an abnormally large amount 
of phosphoric acid and lime; the application to the soil 
of two to three pounds of muriate of potash per tree 
for two or three seasons reduced the percentages of 
these elements, and this reduction, together with judi- 
cious pruning, restored the tree to a vigorous growth. 

The details of this experiment are given in the Sec- 
ond Report of the State Agricultural Experiment 
Station,^ p. 105. The cause of peach yellows still re- 
mains a mystery, according to William H. Taylor, 
chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States 
Department of Agriculture. 

J. B. L. 

^ In co-operation with David P. Penhallow. 



CHAPTER V 

THE EXPERIMENT STATION 

By act of the Legislature, the Massachusetts State 
Agricultural Experiment Station was established May 
12, 1882, with a yearly grant of $5000 ^ for its main- 
tenance, and Goessmann was made its Director and 
Chemist. He had persistently advocated the desir- 
ability of such an institution, and was exceedingly 
gratified at the final realization of his hopes. As time 
passed, his interest in the work of the Station increased 
and he gradually turned his college work over to others. 
Those who were associated with him in the early 
eighties will remember how continuously he discussed 
the present and future prospects of the Station. 

He began at once to make plans for the future work 
of the Station. The Cowls barn was remodelled and 
fitted for the carrying on of experiments in feeding, 
plats were laid out for field experiments, under the 
supervision of Professor Manly Miles, and several 
small rooms were set aside in the College Chemical 
Laboratory for the chemical work of the Station. The 
fittings and conveniences of the laboratory were of the 
simplest kind, and office-room was not available. 

The following principal lines of work were carried 

1 This amount was soon increased to $10,000 yearly, and later $500 were 
added. The National Government added to this support by the Hatch and 
Adams funds. It was not until 1913 that the State Legislature came to the 
support, with an additional grant of $5000 yearly for five years. 





THE EXPERIMENT STATION 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 71 

out by Goessmann with the aid of assistants, mostly 
graduates of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
from the time he became director until he retired in 
1907, and the results were published in the annual re- 
ports of the Massachusetts State Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station (1883-1894), and afterwards in the re- 
ports of the Hatch Experiment Station, in which the 
State Station was merged. 

I. The free analyses of fertilizer mixtures, agricul- 
tural chemicals, refuse materials and by-products suit- 
able for fertilizing purposes, fodder-crops, concentrated 
feeds, dairy products — particularly milk — and drink- 
ing waters. 

Goessmann desired to make the Station of service 
to every one. He, therefore, accepted and had analyzed 
all materials of an agricultural nature that in his judg- 
ment would prove helpful to the citizens of the state. 
He gave freely of his time to reporting the results of the 
analyses and to answering all inquiries in his own hand- 
writing; and one visiting him of an evening would find 
him often in his little office at his home, laboriously 
writing, with a pile of letters by his side. Even in his 
later years he would not employ a stenographer. He 
finally purchased a typewriter, and required one of the 
assistant chemists to learn the art of typewriting. He 
would then state to the young man the gist of what he 
wished to say in answer to letters received, and the 
assistant would write out the letter in full on the type- 
writer, to which Professor Goessmann appended his 
signature. 



72 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

II. The growing of soiling crops, the introduction of 
new soiling crops, and practical feeding experiments to 
test their merits. 

Goessmann was very much interested in animal 
nutrition. He had studied thoroughly the works of 
Grouven, Wolff, Henneberg, Stohmann, and their 
pupils, and was anxious to try out and put in practice 
their teachings. He recognized that the New England 
pasture was rapidly becoming inferior, due to neglect 
and to the oft-occurring summer droughts; and further 
that the hay crop was likely to decrease in amount and 
increase in price. In order to remedy these conditions 
he advocated the growing of a variety of summer for- 
age crops, especially the legumes. He experimented 
with vetch, alfalfa, serradella, horse-beans, lupines, 
cow-peas, soy beans, and many others of less economi- 
cal importance, most of which were new to this country. 
He also advised the growing of mixed fodder crops, 
that is, the mixture of a non-legume with a legume, 
recognizing that a larger yield frequently resulted than 
when these two crops were grown separately. In his 
judgment, a mixture of vetch and oats, and peas and 
oats was a very satisfactory combination. Other green 
crops which especially proved their worth from his 
point of view, were the soy bean, the cow-pea, and the 
serradella. He recognized in the lupines a valuable 
plant for soil-renovation. 

In looking over the results of his experiments with 
green crops, one is impressed with the large variety 
of plants that he brought together for trial. In the 
writer's judgment, however, he did not succeed in 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 73 

working out, or at least putting in workable form, a 
complete system of soiling that would prove practicable 
to the average farmer. Some of the crops which he 
advocated, while they possessed a high nutritive value, 
were too costly, because of the price of seed and labour 
involved in cultivation, to warrant their general use on 
the farm. At the same time, he brought to the attention 
of the agriculturist, and illustrated, the value of sum- 
mer soiling and the variety of fodder crops which 
could be used to advantage for such a purpose. 

III. Feeding experiments with milch cows, 

A series of experiments, covering a period of five 
years (1885-1889), were conducted to compare the 
relative nutritive and economic values of such rough- 
ages as Enghsh hay, corn stover, corn silage, sugar 
beets, and carrots. The conclusions drawn were: 

(a) The nutritive value of corn stover on the basis of 
dry organic matter compared well with an average 
quality of English hay; the same may be said of good 
corn silage fed in place of one-half the customary 
amount of hay. 

(6) Carrots and sugar beets on the basis of dry 
organic matter have exceeded in nutritive value a like 
amount of silage when fed in place of one-half the 
hay. 

(c) Corn silage and roots do best when fed in place 
of one-fourth to one-half the full hay ration. About 
25 pounds of roots daily, or from 35 to 40 pounds of 
silage per day, with sufficient hay to satisfy the appe- 
tite, are about the correct proportions of roughage. 



74 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

(d) Different rations appear to be without effect on 
the chemical character of the milk, this being governed 
by the constitutional characteristics of the animal. 

(e) Milk is produced cheaper on corn stover and on 
silage than when hay constitutes the total roughage. 

It must be remembered that Goessmann was quite 
without practical experience in animal nutrition when 
he began these experiments, and in the light of our 
present knowledge and experience his methods of ex- 
periment would be considered crude. He was a pioneer, 
however, and in spite of the methods followed, the 
above conclusions hold substantially true at the pres- 
ent time. 

A second series (1887-1892), comparing on the basis 
of organic matter, green corn, green vetch and oats, 
peas and oats, cow-peas, soy beans, and serradella with 
English hay, led him to conclude that 'the nutritive 
effect was very satisfactory, for the animals without 
exception maintained their original weight; the yield 
of milk was in every instance somewhat raised, and 
the quality of the milk was equal to the best as far as 
one and the same animal was concerned.' 

A third series with milch cows (1889-1892) was con- 
ducted to study the comparative nutritive values of 
such concentrates as new and old process linseed meals, 
cottonseed meal, Chicago gluten meal, maize feed, 
wheat bran, and corn meal. His conclusion was that 
the feeding value of the five first-named feeds did not 
vary greatly one from the other, but that the cost of 
producing a definite amount of milk depended to an 
extent upon the cost of these by-products, and particu- 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 75 

larly upon the cost of the different roughages with 
which they were combined. He also called attention 
to the increased value of the manure where nitroge- 
nous concentrates were fed in place of corn and other 
cereals. 

IV, Feeding experiments with pigs. 

Beginning in 1884 and terminating in 1892, Goess- 
mann carried on 17 different feeding experiments with 
young pigs, to ascertain the best method of feeding, 
the most suitable feed-stuffs to use, and the cost of 
pork production. Usually six pigs were used in each 
experiment. At first, he compared the relative nutri- 
tive merits of skim milk and buttermilk, and found 
that on the basis of dry matter they had substantially 
equal nutritive values. Later, he investigated the most 
suitable proportions to be used of corn meal and skim 
milk, and in case skim milk was in limited supply, he 
endeavoured to find a suitable substitute in the form of 
different grain mixtures. 

He started with young pigs of from 20 to 30 pounds 
in weight, and terminated the experiment when the 
individual animals reached a weight of from 180 to 200 
pounds. Skim milk was in fairly liberal supply in the 
western counties of the state at the time, because of the 
numerous co-operative creameries engaged in the man- 
ufacture of butter. 

As a result of these many experiments he advised the 
following combinations of milk and grain : — 



76 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 



I. WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF SKIM MILK 



Live weight oj animal 


Corn meal and shim milk 


Nutritive ratio 


20 to 70 pounds 

70 to 130 pounds 

130 to 200 pounds 


2 oz. meal to each quart of milk 
4 oz. meal to each quart of milk 
6 oz. meal to each quart of milk 


1:3 
1:4 
1:5 



ii. with milk in limited supply (4 to 5 quarts 

daily) 

Same proportions of meal and milk as in I, and a combination of grain 
in different proportions to satisfy appetites as follows: — 



Live weight of animal 


Grain mixture {by weight) to 
supplement meal and milk 




Gluten meal 


Wheat bran 


Corn meal 


20 to 70 pounds 


2 
1 
1 


1 

1 
1 


1 


70 to 130 pounds 


1 


130 to 200 pounds 


2 







He fed rations with a narrow nutritive ratio at first, 
when the young animal was in need of the largest pro- 
portion of nitrogenous matter, increasing the carbo- 
hydrates as the animal grew. A ration with a too nar- 
row ratio after the animals have reached 100 pounds 
in weight retarded growth. He found it to be poor 
economy to keep the pig after it has reached a weight 
of 200 pounds. After that time the food-cost of a pound 
of growth was in excess of its usual market value. He 
presented very elaborate tables, showing the total 
amounts of feed consumed by each pig, the total dry 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 77 

matter in the feed, gain in live weight, shrinkage in 
dressing, the amount of dry matter required to pro- 
duce a pound of dressed weight, and the food-cost of a 
pound of Hve and dressed weight. The results of these 
various experiments with 140 pigs, and a number of 
later ones made by the writer, have been summarized 
by him in the Eleventh Report of the Hatch Experiment 
Station, pages 36-42. 

V. Feeding experiments with steers (1889-1894). 

Professor Goessmann undertook a series of experi- 
ments with grade Shorthorn steers to ascertain (a) the 
most suitable fodder rations; (6) the cost of beef pro- 
duction in New England ; (c) the average daily gain in 
live weight; and (d) to compare the relative merits of 
summer soiling versus pasture. 

The steers were, in some cases, sent to what was 
termed good pasture, and in other cases, soiled. Dur- 
ing the seven autumn, winter, and spring months they 
were fed on corn fodder, corn silage, hay, and a variety 
of grains and by-products. In the writer's judgment 
the steers were not ideal ones for beef-production, al- 
though they were the best that could be found in the 
local markets. Well-bred blocky steers probably would 
have given rather better returns for the food con- 
sumed. 

The results of these experiments are briefly stated : — 

(a) The most economical coarse fodders consisted 
of corn fodder, corn silage, some corn stover, and mini- 
mum amounts of hay. The grains used at different 
times were wheat bran, cottonseed meal, gluten meal. 



78 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

gluten feed, and linseed meal, selected naturally with 
reference to their market cost. 

(6) The food-cost of producing a pound of live weight 
was 10.58 cents. The original cost of the steers and 
the total cost of food consumed was $817.50, and the 
selling price of the steers $460.91, leaving a loss 
of $356.59. A reasonable allowance for the manure 
would have been $161.00, still leaving a deficit of 
$195.59. 

(c) The average daily gain in live weight for all 
steers was 1.24 pounds. 

(d) In the case of the steers at pasture, the average 
daily gain was .63 pound, and in the case of the steers 
that were soiled 1.63 pounds. The steers made very 
poor gains at pasture, and it seemed evident that in 
order to secure satisfactory results ordinary pasturage 
must be supplemented with some roughage or grain. 
In spite of the additional daily gain when a system 
of entire soiling was followed, the cost of this method 
is likely to be prohibitive from the standpoint of 
economy. 

VI. Feeding experiments with lambs (1890-1893). 

Three experiments were conducted with 18 lambs 
dropped in the spring, and fed during the following 
winter and early spring months. Observations were 
made on the most suitable roughage and grains, and 
on combinations of the same for growth and economy. 

The results secured were much the same as those 
secured for steers. The same feeds and feed combina- 
tions as fed to steers produced essentially the same 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 79 

results when fed to lambs. The cost of the sheep and 
food at market rates, including a liberal valuation of 
the manure, about equalled the selling price of the 
lambs. It is probable that, figured at present prices, 
the returns would be more favourable. At that time, 
however, there did not seem to be any direct profit in 
growing yearling lambs. The only advantage seemed 
to be the selling of roughage at market rates and the 
securing of a valuable manure for crop production. 
The data secured by Goessmann were interesting and 
valuable. 

VTI. Fodder corn raised upon worn-out meadow lands 
partly fertilized with one or two special articles of plant- 
food and partly without the use of any manurial matter 
(1883-1888). 

The object of this experiment was to ascertain if 
land that had been for a long time cropped with grass 
and corn — the usual method of rotation practised by 
many farmers at the time — was suffering from general 
or special exhaustion. The one and one-tenth acres 
used for this purpose were divided into one-tenth acre 
plats and known as Field A. During 1883 and 1884 the 
land was planted with corn without the application of 
any form of plant-food, and showed unmistakably pro- 
nounced evidence of general or special exhaustion. 
Beginning in 1885, different single articles of plant- 
food were applied — nitrate of soda, ammonium sul- 
phate, dried blood, dissolved boneblack, muriate of 
potash, and sulphate of potash-magnesia. There were 
three nothing plats and one fallow plat. At the close 



80 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

of the experiment in 1888, the following facts were 
clearly in evidence: — 

(1) The soil was found to be especially deficient in 
available potash as a result of the continued close rota- 
tion of grasses and corn. 

(2) The plats to which potash only was applied re- 
sponded readily with increased yields. After three 
years these plats began to show a decided shrinkage in 
crop-production and more complete fertilizers were 
needed to maintain the yield. 

(3) Allowing land to be fallow does not materially 
benefit its productiveness, and should be discour- 
aged. (Photographs of the yield on the different plats 
appear in the sixth report of the Station.) The 
above experiment was considered at the time a very 
striking illustration of the exhaustion of available 
soil potash by the continued cropping with grass and 
corn. 

VIII. Field experiments to compare the influence of an 
addition of nitrogen in different combinations to the soil 
under cultivation on the general character of the crop and 
the annual yield (1889-1892). 

The same field (A) which was used for the previously 
described experiment was employed in the present 
case. All of the 11 plats received an equal amount of 
potash in the form of muriate or double sulphate of 
potash and magnesia, and of phosphoric acid as dis- 
solved boneblack. The nitrogen was supplied in the 
forms of barnyard manure, nitrate of soda, sulphate of 
ammonia, and dried blood. Three plats did not re- 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 81 

ceive nitrogen in any form. The crops grown were 
corn, oats, rye, and soy beans. 

The results of four years' observation showed quite 
clearly that the application of some form of nitrogen 
was necessary in order to secure remunerative crops. 
Even soy beans, a nitrogen gatherer, did not take suflS- 
cient air nitrogen to produce a normal yield. The fal- 
low plat, after several years' cultivation, was still be- 
hind the other plats in crop yield. Beginning with 
1893, and continuing through 1896, a legume (soy 
beans) was alternated with a non-legume (oats), to 
note if the frequent cultivation of a legume would 
gradually increase the available nitrogen in the soil so 
that it would not be necessary to apply fertilizer nitro- 
gen. At the close of the experiment in 1896 it was 
observed that the 'introduction of an annual legumi- 
nous crop into our rotation had somewhat reduced the 
difference in yield between the plats receiving no nitro- 
gen and those receiving it, yet had not entirely oblit- 
erated it.' The plats at that time which had not re- 
ceived any nitrogen proved one-seventh to one-eighth 
less productive than the others. After 1896 advancing 
years made it necessary for Professor Goessmann to 
discontinue his field experiments. This experiment 
was continued by Brooks, and further information 
will be found in the ninth and later reports of the 
Hatch Experiment Station. 

IX. Experiments with potatoes (1884-1888). 
This experiment was undertaken originally for the 
purpose of studying the effect of muriate and double 



82 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

sulphate of potash-magnesia on the quantity and qual- 
ity of potatoes. Before the experiment had been in 
progress long, a scabby condition of the crop resulted, 
which led to a study of the cause of this trouble. Goess- 
mann states that 'neither a liberal use of our own mix- 
ture of commercial manurial substances rich in potash 
compounds nor the selection of a fair quality of seed 
potatoes from another locality had affected our results; 
... for the entire crop with scarcely any exception was 
badly disfigured by scab.' The conclusions were as 
follows: — 

(1) Medium-sized whole potatoes give better results 
as far as a large-sized marketable crop is concerned 
than half potatoes obtained from tubers of a corre- 
sponding size. 

(2) The sulphate of potash produced better results 
than muriate of potash. 

(3) Some peculiar condition of the soil is considered 
the real cause of the scabby condition. (Photographs 
of the scabby potatoes are given in the sixth report of 
the Station, page 131.) 

It is evident that this scabby condition seriously 
interfered with the experiment as originally planned. 
It led to observations on the cause of the scab, and to 
the conclusion that the seat of the trouble lay in the 
soil. Later investigations by botanists showed it to be 
a parasitic organism. 

X. Experiment with root crops (1887-1888). 
A brief discussion is given of the general character of 
roots and their place in the farm economy. Seed was 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 83 

obtained from the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, of several varieties of mangolds, sugar beets, 
turnips, and carrots. They were grown upon the Sta- 
tion grounds, observations recorded of the methods of 
cultivation, photographs taken and published of the 
more promising varieties, and detailed chemical analy- 
ses were made and published. 

XI. Experiments to study the economy of using differ- 
ent commercial sources of phosphoric acid for manurial 
purposes in farm practice (1890-1897).^ 

The soil had been in grass for a long time, and its 
supply of available plant-food had become greatly 
reduced. During 1887-1888-1889 it was planted with 
crops to still further exhaust the phosphoric acid. The 
field was divided into five plats, a definite amount of 
the same form of nitrogen and potash added, and five 
different sources of phosphoric acid applied on the 
basis of their market value, namely, 127 pounds of 
basic slag, 128 pounds of Mona guano, 304 pounds of 
apatite,^ 131 pounds of South Carolina phosphate, and 
78 pounds of dissolved boneblack. On the basis of one 
acre, such applications were at the rate of 850 pounds 
for slag, Mona guano, and South Carolina phosphate, 
2000 pounds of apatite, and 500 pounds of boneblack. 
In 1894 and thereafter the phosphoric acid application 

* Goessmann discontinued this work with the season of 1896, and it was 
brought to a conclusion in 1901 by Brooks. 

^ In 1891, apatite could not be secured, hence phosphoric acid was not 
applied to this plat. In 1892, 129 pounds of Florida hard phosphate were 
substituted — equal to 850 pounds per acre. It could not be considered 
fair to this phosphate to compare it with others which had been applied 
two years longer. 



84 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

was omitted in order to get the residual efifect, while 
the supply of nitrogen and potash was increased one- 
half. 

The crops and yields in the several years were as 
follows in pounds: — 





1890 


1891 


1892 


1893 


1894 


1895 


1896 


Fertilizer 


2 
2 






s 


1 


OS 


e 


Basic slag 


1600 
1415 
1500 
1830 
2120 


380 
340 
215 
380 
405 


4070 
3410 
2750 
3110 
2920 


1660 
1381 
1347 
1469 
1322 


490 
405 
290 
460 
390 


695 
630 
383 
759 
625 


254 


Mona guano 

Florida phosphate . . . 

S.C. phosphate 

Dis. boneblack 


233 
262 
252 
247 



TOTAL PHOSPHORIC ACID ADDED AND REMOVED 

1890-1896 



Fertilizer 



Basic slag 

Mona guano 

Florida phosphate 
S.C. phosphate — 
Dis. boneblack . . . 



Amount 

added 

(pounds) 



96.72 

72.04 

165.70 

144.48 

49.36 



Amount 
removed 
(pounds) 



31.11 

27.81 
23.98 
29.46 

27.57 



Per cent 
removed 
(pounds) 



32.17 
38.60 
14.47 
20.39 
55.85 



As a result of these observations Goessmann con- 
cluded that for the first two years the dissolved bone- 
black led, while afterwards the insoluble phosphates 
were ahead in the following order: basic slag, South 
Carolina phosphate, and Mona guano. 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 85 

On the basis of money value, Goessmann's conclu- 
sions appear correct; on the basis of phosphoric acid 
applied and removed, it is shown by the preceding 
table that dissolved boneblack led, followed by Mona 
guano, basic slag, South Carolina phosphate, and 
Florida phosphate. Brooks sowed Swedish turnips in 
1897, and found that the Mona guano produced by 
far the largest yield. 

It may be remarked that this experiment was faulty 
in that (a) no check plat or plats were included from 
which the phosphoric acid had been omitted; (b) the 
ceasing to apply the various phosphates after 1894 was 
unfair to the dissolved boneblack when the results are 
based upon crop-yield, it being necessary in order to 
secure the best returns to apply relatively small 
amounts of the soluble phosphates each year; (c) the 
application of definite amounts of phosphoric acid as 
above stated would have been preferable to money 
value in judging the relative effects of the several 
forms as sources of plant-food. 

XII. Experiments with grass-lands to determine the 
effects of different forms of plant-food on permanent 
meadows (1889-1895). 

The moist meadow on the east side of the county 
road was underdrained and divided into four plats. 
Plat I contained 1.92 acres; Plat II, 1.92 acres; Plat 
III, 2.41 acres; and Plat IV, 3 acres. 

The first two plats received barnyard manure at 
first in different amounts, to ascertain its limit of 
usefulness. In 1892 Plat I received at the rate of 



86 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSI\L\NN 

8 tons and Plat II at the rate of 6 tons of manure 
per acre. 

Plat III received 600 pounds of fine ground bone and 
200 pounds of muriate of potash per acre. 

Plat IV received one ton of Canada ashes per 
acre. 

In 1893, Plats I and II were combined and used as 
one plat. Beginning with this year also a system of 
rotation in manuring was instituted. Plats I and II 
receiving wood ashes. Plat III barnyard manure, and 
Plat IV bone and potash. This same system was con- 
tinued in 1894. In 1895, another rotation of the same 
manures was instituted. At the close of this year Plat 
I, which had received manure for most of the time, had 
averaged at the rate of 3.56 tons; Plat III, 3.25 tons; 
and Plat IV, 2.90 tons of hay to the acre. These experi- 
ments were continued by Brooks. After the plats had 
been in grass ten years. Brooks stated tliat since 1893, 
during the continuance of the rotation system of 
manuring, the field had averaged 3.4 tons of hay and 
rowen per acre. The plats when dressed with manure 
averaged 3.6 tons, with bone and potash 3.33 tons, and 
with ashes 3.27 tons per acre. Brooks further says that 
'this system of using these different manures for grass 
lands in rotation has much to commend it. It is 
simple and has given remarkably good crops.' The 
writer remarks that it shows what natural grass-land 
can be made to produce when fairly well fertilized each 
year. Moisture and plant-food are the controlling fac- 
tors in hay production. 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 87 

XIII. Field experiments regarding the effect of differ- 
ent combinations of commercial fertilizer on the yield of 
some prominent garden crops (1892-1897) . 

Six plats of one-eighth of an acre each, known as 
Field C (each 88 x 62 ft.), were laid out and treated with 
50 pounds of phosphoric acid in the form of dissolved 
boneblack, 60 pounds of nitrogen in the forms of ni- 
trate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, or dried blood, and 
120 pounds of potash in the form of muriate or high- 
grade sulphate. 

The object of the experiment was to test dried blood, 
nitrate of soda, and sulphate of ammonia, combined 
with muriate of potash and high-grade sulphate of 
potash. 

A number of rows of each of the following crops 
were planted on each plat during the several years: 
celery, lettuce, spinach, beets, cabbages, tomatoes, 
potatoes, beans, onions, corn. In 1894-1895-1896, 
onions, sweet corn, beans, and tomatoes constituted 
the crops grown. 

As a result of his observations through 1896, he 
draws the following conclusions : — 

(1) Sulphate of potash, with nitrate of soda, has 
given in every case (excepting onions) the best results. 

(2) Nitrate of soda as a nitrogen source has yielded 
in almost every case, without reference to the source of 
potash, the best results. 

(3) Sulphate of ammonia and muriate of potash have 
given, as a rule, the least satisfactory results. The fact 
is due evidently to the change of chloride of potash 
and sulphate of ammonia into sulphate of potash and 



88 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

chloride of ammonia, the latter being an unfavourable 
form of nitrogen plant-food. The above was not posi- 
tively demonstrated but only assumed. It may have 
been the case, however. 

(4) The influence of the weather, particularly the 
rainfall . . . has been greater than that of the different 
fertilizers upon the different plats during the same 
season. It was evident that the lack of moisture played 
a very important role in the yield of the several crops. 
This experiment was continued on the above plan 
through 1897, by Brooks, who drew substantially simi- 
lar conclusions to the above. Beginning with 1898, it 
was modified. {Eleventh Report of the Hatch Experi- 
merit Station, page 67.) 

XIV. Field experiments to compare the effect of barn- 
yard manure with Canada ashes and mixtures of com- 
mercial fertilizing materials on farm crops (1888-1894). 

The land for this experiment was situated east of the 
county road, bounded on the north by 'Lovers' Lane,' 
so-called, and on the east by woods. It was to the east 
of the meadow used for experiments with grass. Five 
plats of substantially nine-tenths of an acre each were 
used, divided by strips 14 feet wide. The land had been 
in grass previously, but in 1888 was ploughed and fer- 
tilized with ashes. The only difference in the treatment 
of the five plats consisted in supplying different forms 
of plant-food as follows: 

Plat I — 10 tons barnyard manure per acre. 

Plat II — 1 ton Canada ashes per acre, 

Plat III — without fertilizer, 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 89 

Plat IV — 600 lbs. ground bone and 200 lbs. muriate 

of potash per acre. 
Plat V — 600 lbs. ground bone and 400 lbs. double 
sulphate of potash-magnesia per 
acre. 
The following crops were grown during the several 
years: barley, oats, dent corn, vetch and oats, Scotch 
tares, soy beans, Canada peas, and oats. Several crops 
were planted as a part of the same plat in each year, 
the conditions on all of the plats being uniform. 

As a result of these observations, the following gen- 
eral deductions were drawn: — 

(1) In 1890 the effect of bone and different forms of 
potash compared very well with stable manure, as did 
also Canada ashes. Part of this favourable effect Goess- 
mann ascribes to the organic matter in the soil derived 
from the sod turned under in 1888. 

(2) Sulphate of potash-magnesia has given rather 
better results than the muriate with legumes. 

(3) The yield of the unfertilized plat in 1891 showed 
a noticeable decline as compared with the fertilized 
plats (one- third less). 

(4) Seeding in drills in all cases gave a larger yield of 
grain than seeding broadcast. 

(5) Muriate of potash seems to produce larger yield 
in case of grain crop. 

(6) Soy beans should be planted in drills, otherwise 
they are interfered with by weeds. 

(7) Vetch and oats yield larger crops earlier in the 
season than soy beans. They also yield a larger crop 
of dry fodder for winter use. 



90 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

(8) Both vetch and oats and soy beans make a valu- 
able ensilage. Two parts, by weight, of corn and one 
part of beans are desirable proportions. 

In 1890 Goessmann began to set out the above five 
plats to fruit trees — apples, pears, and peaches. 
Plums were added in 1893, and in the autumn of that 
year the plats were seeded to rye and grass. After that, 
these plats were treated as an orchard. The experi- 
ment was continued by Brooks, and eventually the 
apple trees only were allowed to remain. The apple 
trees are now full grown, and the experiment has 
yielded valuable information which has been reported 
by Brooks in the later reports of this Station. 

XV. Field experiments with tobacco in Massachusetts. 
(Bulletin No. 47, Hatch Experiment Station, 1893- 
1896.) 

These experiments were carried on in Hatfield, West- 
field, and Agawam in co-operation with the so-called 
Valley Tobacco Experiment Association. Expert to- 
bacco-growers had special supervision of the experi- 
ments in each of the three towns. Twelve plats, each 
one-twentieth of an acre, which were laid out by a 
representative of the Station, served for the trial. 
Potassium oxide was applied at the rate of 300 
pounds, available phosphoric acid 60 pounds, and 
nitrogen 100 pounds to the acre. One-fourth of the 
nitrogen was in the form of nitrate of soda and 
potash. 

The crop was cut, housed, and stripped under expert 
supervision. 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 91 

Among the many conclusions drawn may be men- 
tioned the following: — 

(1) A careless use of cultivator or hoe checks growth 
of plants and modifies their structure and general 
character. 

(2) Different fertilizer combinations have had less 
effect upon the quantity than upon the quality of 
the crop. New land naturally suited to tobacco 
and cropped for a number of years to exhaust the 
available plant-food, served much better for the 
experiment than land upon which tobacco had been 
continuously grown and which had been heavily 
fertilized. 

(3) Cottonseed and linseed meals and castor pomace 
all proved equally desirable sources of nitrogen when 
used in connexion with nitrate of soda or potash. 

(4) Nitrate of soda, used together with acid phos- 
phate or dissolved boneblack, proved more satisfactory 
than nitrate of potash. 

(5) Cottonseed hull ashes and high-grade sulphate 
of potash proved the most valuable potash sources, 
the former being preferred in most cases. Nitrate 
of potash was very satisfactory when used in com- 
bination with an alkaline phosphate such as basic 
slag or with carbonate of potash-magnesia. Sul- 
phate of potash-magnesia did not give satisfactory 
results. 

Other interesting observations concerning the prob- 
able effect of fertilizers on colour of ash, observations 
with barnyard manure, etc., will be found in the 
bulletin. 



92 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

XVI. Compilation of tables of analyses of fertilizer 
chemicals and fertilizer by-products, cattle feeds, dairy 
products, and fruits. 

The chemists of the Experiment Station were always 
busy, and as time passed a very large number of anal- 
yses accumulated. In 1887, in order to make them 
more readily available, Goessmann made his first tabu- 
lation, which included all analyses made since 1868. 
These compilations have been continued by the writer 
and his co-workers with such modifications and en- 
largements as circumstances advised. 

XVII. Water analyses. 

Free analyses of drinking water were made as early 
as 1883. In the second report of the Station he dwelt 
upon the importance of pure water upon the farm. 
The analyses made from year to year indicated fre- 
quent contamination, both from sewage and from the 
use of lead pipe. Each year a large number of samples 
were received from dijfferent citizens of the state, and 
in 1903, because of an abuse of the privilege, a small 
charge for an analysis was imposed and the water was 
required to be shipped in containers supplied by the 
Station. 

XVIII. Meteorology. 

Beginning in 1883, a systematic record was kept of 
the weather, including temperature, wind, humidity, 
and rainfall. One of the assistant chemists was espe- 
cially charged with this work. In his first report he says : 
'The importance of meteorological data, in connexion 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 93 

with observations upon plants and animals is apparent 
to all. No conclusions are firmly grounded until the 
conditions of temperature, moisture, and sunlight have 
been duly considered.' Similar or more complete ob- 
servations were continued after the Massachusetts 
Station was merged in the Hatch Station. 

XIX. Miscellaneous work. 

In addition to the work already reviewed, many 
other experiments were made and reported which were 
of value at the time. Among these may be mentioned 
temperature conditions in the silo for several weeks 
after filling, a continuation of his observations on the 
effect of different forms of potash in fruit-culture, a 
study of the conditions in two local creameries, and the 
composition of the milk of different breeds of cows. 

As a conclusion to the brief review of the scientific 
papers and the experiments undertaken by Goessmann 
from the beginning of his connexion with the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College in 1868 until his retire- 
ment in 1907, one cannot fail to be impressed with the 
wonderful energy displayed by him. He was not a 
rapid worker, but he succeeded in accomplishing much 
because of his steady and long-continued application. 
He took comparatively few vacations. He possessed a 
strong constitution and a phlegmatic temperament. 
His pleasant home life, together with his garden, his 
shrubbery and trees, were his constant sources of 
recreation and enjoyment. Vacations were to him in 
reality more a duty than a pleasure. He did practically 



94 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

no chemical work himself after he became director of 
the Station, devoting all his time to executive work, 
including correspondence, and particularly to study- 
ing the work of foreign investigators. 

While he did not possess any practical agricultural 
experience previous to coming to Massachusetts, he 
studied thoroughly the agricultural conditions of the 
state in order to see just how the College and Experi- 
ment Station could be of most use to the farming in- 
terests. In all his lines of work, his aim seemed to be 
not so much to study fundamental problems in agricul- 
tural chemistry as to show how chemistry could be 
applied to help improve farm operations. 

Thus, in animal nutrition he endeavoured to illus- 
trate the need of a greater diversity of coarse fodders, 
and the special value of the legumes; to show by actual 
feeding trials the value of the rapidly increasing num- 
ber of concentrated protein by-products. In his feed- 
ing trials with pigs, steers, and sheep, his object was to 
show the farmer how best to utilize the by-products of 
the dairy and the roughages of the farm in order to 
produce pork, beef, and mutton with the greatest 
economy. In addition to applying the principles of 
animal nutrition as they were known, his constant 
thought was that of economy in the feeding of ani- 
mals, the getting of data that would show the farmer 
the cost of producing a definite amount of animal 
products. 

In experiments in the field his object was first to 
secure data on the general chemical composition of 
different soils; to note if a failure to produce crops was 



THE EXPERIMENT STATION 95 

due to general or special depletion of fertility; to ob- 
serve the relative values of different forms of the most 
important elements of plant-food and their effect in 
improving the growth of different farm crops. For 
example, he sought to ascertain the value of different 
forms of phosphoric acid, nitrogen, and potash, and 
their specific effects on the yield and, whenever pos- 
sible, upon the quality of fodder crops, vegetables, and 
fruits. 

He used the chemical laboratory, not so much to 
study fundamental chemical problems, as to ascertain 
the proximate chemical composition of soils, of ferti- 
lizers and by-products having a manurial value, of 
cattle feeds, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables. 
Such data were very scanty at the time and it was 
necessary to secure them as a basis for future work. 

In addition to descriptions of his own experiments, 
one finds in the various reports of the Experiment 
Station brief papers explaining the scientific principles 
underlying the subject. He had read thoroughly the 
works of the German, French, and English investiga- 
tors, and he was thus able to present to his readers 
the most advanced views of the day on the problem 
under consideration. 

One can readily see that the many practical prob- 
lems confronting him on every side, together with the 
lack of appreciation of strictly scientific inquiry by 
many of the farmers of the day, prevented him from 
undertaking any very fundamental research work. He 
was of necessity a pioneer in the cause of agricultural 
investigation. If, at the present time, at the age of 



96 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

thirty, he had come to this country with a relatively 
similar training to that which he possessed in 1857, he 
undoubtedly would have attacked and solved some of 
the more intricate agricultural problems now con- 
fronting us. He was contemporary with Hilgard of 
California, Johnson of Connecticut, Cook of New 
Jersey, and Kedzie of Michigan, all of whom greatly 
widened the horizon and enriched our knowledge of 
agricultural science and practice. 

J. B. L. 



CHAPTER VI 

LATER YEARS 

On the 28th of July 1880, Dr. Goessmann attended 
a convention of the leading agricultural chemists of 
the country at Washington. At this gathering he of- 
fered the following resolution, which was adopted : — 
* Resolved, That this Convention form a section in the 
subdivision of Chemistry of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, and that the next 
meeting be held in Boston, during the regular meeting 
of the aforesaid Association.' A permanent organiza- 
tion was then effected under the name of the Associa- 
tion of Agricultural Chemists,^ and Dr. Goessmann 
was made chairman. Goessmann's reputation as a 
technical and agricultural chemist had long been 
firmly established, and his election to this oflSce was a 
fitting recognition of his services and contributions to 
those branches of chemical science. Earlier in the year 
he had been unanimously elected State Chemist of 
North Carolina, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the 
resignation of Dr. Albert R. Ledoux. This position, 
however, he had declined. 

In 1881 and 1882 he served as a member of the com- 
mittee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences 
to investigate and report on the scientific and economic 

* Reorganized, September 8, 1884, as the Association of Official Agricul- 
tiiral Chemists of the United States. 



98 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

relations of the sorghum-sugar industry in the United 
States. Averse to controversy, and rather than risk 
being entangled in disputes, — so little to his taste, — 
he finally withdrew from the committee. From 1883 
to 1904 he was analyst to the State Board of Health of 
Massachusetts, and from 1886 until his death chemist 
to the Bay State Agricultural Society. 

He was a member of several of the leading scientific 
societies and academies, both at home and abroad. 
Some of these have already been mentioned and others 
will be found in the Chronology. In 1865 he was 
elected a corresponding member of the New York 
Academy of Sciences. In 1869 he joined the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 
1875 was elected a fellow. One of the original mem- 
bers of the American Chemical Society, founded in 
1876, he was a vice-president in 1877, and again in 
1881 and 1882. In 1887 he succeeded Dr. Albert B. 
Prescott as president. In 1880 he was one of a com- 
mittee of three appointed to represent the Society at 
the centennial celebration of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences. He was also a member of the 
general committee of arrangements for the twenty- 
fifth anniversary celebration of the Chemical Society 
in 1901. 

Goessmann was one of the twelve scientists who, at 
a meeting held in Boston in April 1880, organized the 
Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science. In 
1893 he was a member of the Advisory Council on 
Chemistry of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the 
Columbian Exposition, and was invited to address the 



LATER YEARS 99 

Congress of Chemists at Chicago on salt, on methods of 
teaching or demonstrating chemistry, and on the prog- 
ress of chemistry as applied to agriculture. In 1889 
Amherst College conferred upon him the degree of 
Doctor of Laws. 

He was a frequent lecturer before the state boards of 
agriculture and the various agricultural and horticul- 
tural societies, and read papers at the meetings of the 
American Chemical Society and other scientific bodies. 
For upwards of thirty years he was a constant attend- 
ant at the gatherings of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Agriculture and the most constant contribu- 
tor to its reports. He lectured before the Board 'on 
salt and its uses in agriculture'; 'on nitrogen plant- 
food'; 'on the subduing and utilizing of salt-marshes 
for tillage'; 'on plant and animal nutrition'; 'on the 
chemistry of fruit culture'; 'on the cultivation of the 
sugar-beet'; 'on the effect of chemical salts on the 
carbohydrate content of plants'; 'on the system of 
preserving green food in silos ' ; 'on mineral constitu- 
ents in plant-growth'; 'on the influence of chemistry 
in the development of a rational system of stock- 
feeding'; 'on the rotation of crops'; 'on rational fer- 
tilization of garden crops and fruits'; 'on the hay-field 
and English hay'; 'on the breeding and feeding of 
swine'; and 'on the grass crop.' 

On November 12, 1898, a notable dinner was given 
at the Metropolitan Club in New York, for Gottingen 
students of 1855-56, with some of earlier and later 
dates, the hosts being Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, Profes- 
sor Charles F. Chandler, and Mr. James D. Hague. 



100 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

Dr. Goessmann attended this 'Reunion of Compan- 
ions at Gottingen,' and was one of the speakers. At 
this interesting gathering were many of his old pupils 
and friends, including Caldwell, Chandler, J. H. East- 
wick, Hague, Hungerford, Magee, Mallet, and Tuttle. 
Of the ten whose names are inscribed on the balance 
presented to him in 1855-56, six of the seven then liv- 
ing were present. Dean, Nason, and Pugh had passed 
away. 

In August 1899 Dr. Goessmann, accompanied by his 
wife and daughters, revisited the Fatherland after an 
absence of more than forty years, remaining abroad 
until the following summer. This was his first vacation 
for thirty years, or since the call to Amherst in 1868. 
He went also as an honorary representative of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, to investi- 
gate the condition of the beet-sugar industry in the 
German Empire. He was likewise a delegate of the 
American Chemical Society to the unveiling of the 
statue of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier in Paris. He 
went, however, with the intention of doing but little 
scientific work, and finding pleasure among friends old 
and new. 

He spent nine delightful weeks in Gottingen, making 
various excursions in the neighbourhood, especially to 
beet-sugar factories and beet-raising farms. With the 
professors he had much pleasant intercourse, among 
others his old colleague Friedrich Griepenkerl, then 
dean of the philosophical faculty. He enjoyed also the 
hospitality of the Fraulein Helena and Sophia Woh- 
ler, daughters of his beloved teacher. Fifty years had 



LATER YEARS 101 

passed since he matriculated as a student of phar- 
macy and chemistry in the philosophical faculty of the 
University of Georgia Augusta, and forty-eight since 
he took his degree as Doctor of Philosophy. It is the 
German custom to renew that degree for those that 
survive fifty years. To him those weeks at Gottingen 
were an occasion of quiet rejoicing, and he often re- 
ferred to * Gottingen revisited ' as his Jubilceum. 

From Gottingen he wrote : — 

*In looking over the collections of inorganic and 
organic chemical preparations in the chemical labora- 
tory my attention was repeatedly called to samples 
familiar to me from the time when acting as assistant 
to "Wohler. It seemed to give special satisfaction to 
the janitor, who served as a youthful janitor in my 
time, to point out to me specimens marked in my 
handwriting.' 

He returned to America the following June, and was 
soon again occupied with his work, aware that the 
students, whom he had gathered about him and 
trained, were capable of taking up the lines whenever 
he should lay them down. He continued to supervise 
the chemical work of the Experiment Station until 
July 1907, when he was made Consulting Chemical 
Expert and retired on a pension granted by the Trus- 
tees of the Carnegie Foundation. In 1908 he became 
Professor Emeritus, 

On his eightieth birthday, which marked the com- 
pletion of fifty years residence in the United States and 
forty years of service at the College, his former stu- 
dents far and near united to honour him. At the 



102 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

Alumni dinner in Draper Hall, on June 17, 1907, he 
was presented with a highly decorated stained window, 
to be hung in his study, on which is written: — 

To 
KARL ANTON GOESSMANN 

of Naumburg Fritzlar and Gottingen 

Chemist Teacher Philosopher 

this testimonial 

commemorative of forty years of loyal and fruitful service 

at the Massachusetts Agricultural College 

is presented by his pupils 

on his 80th birthday 

13 June 1907 

As reminders of the old home places, the armorial 
bearings of Fulda, Fritzlar, and Gottingen are em- 
blazoned, quartered, on one shield; the silver cross of 
the old arms of Fulda and the lilies of the new; the 
cross and wheels of Fritzlar and the towers of Gottin- 
gen. The seal of the University of Gottingen is on the 
right, with Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, her back 
toward the spear and the shield bearing the masque of 
war and facing the emblems of peace — the olive- 
branch and the open book. The German chevron is 
depicted in red, white, and black — the royal and im- 
perial colours. The background shows the Hanoverian 
colour — yellow — which also is that of the Univer- 
sity. Below are the emblems of the chemist, the flames 
of his fire surrounding a Hessian crucible, a retort in 
ancient form, a blowpipe, assayer's tongs, and before 
the furnace are test tubes. The blue and the green of 
the Wistaria are interspersed with the foliage of the 
Arachis or peanut plant and the yellow of its flower, to 



LATER YEARS 103 

recall one of his earlier investigations. While at Got- 
tingen he studied the oil of the peanut, the fruit of 
Arachis hypogaea, in which he found two acids until 
then unknown, and which he named ' arachic acid ' and 
'hypogaeic acid' respectively. The luxuriant growth 
of these vines symbolizes the rich harvest due to his 
labours with fertilizers. And above is written the old 
Gottingen motto, ^Die Gottinger haben den Muth' (the 
Gottingers have courage). The expression originated 
at the time when the inhabitants of the walled town 
successively and successfully repulsed the robber 
barons of the region when on their plunder raids. The 
window was unveiled by Dr. Charles Wellington, his 
colleague in the Chemical Department for a quarter of 
a century, and was accepted by Dr. Goessmann with a 
few dignified and touching words. 

In January 1910, at the request of the Alumni, he 
sat for his portrait to Mr. Edwin B. Child of New 
York. At the Alumni dinner on the 21st of June fol- 
lowing it was unveiled by Frederick Tuckerman and 
presented to the College. The portrait was accepted, 
on behalf of the Trustees, by Mr. William H. Bowker 
of Boston, a member of the first class and the senior 
member of the Board. Many addresses were made by 
his former students and others. Much to his regret 
Dr. Goessmann was unable to be present, but a letter 
from him was read by Dr. Homer J. Wheeler, the Pres- 
ident of the Association, in which he sent his 'affec- 
tionate greeting and best wishes ' — his last earthly 
message — to his 'old pupils.' 

Pre-eminently a domestic man and a devoted hus- 



104 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

band and father, his chief delight was in his home. It 
was interesting to witness his childlike pleasure in his 
beautiful grounds, in the trees and shrubs — all 
selected and planted by him with excellent taste. In 
tending and caring for them he found abundant relax- 
ation and recreation. 

Deeply religious from his youth, the contemplation 
of Nature, no less than the sublime teaching of Scrip- 
ture, inspired him with true devotion. He spent much 
time in meditation and the study of the Bible. He 
greatly admired the works of Faber and Newman, and 
their writings formed part of his daily reading. Born 
a Catholic, the faith of his fathers, he lived and died 
a devout member of the Church. It was largely 
through the joint and persistent efforts of Dr. Goess- 
mann and his devoted wife that a Roman Catholic 
church was built and maintained in Amherst. 

He was taken ill on the 23rd of August. He lingered 
until the 1st of September, retaining his mental facul- 
ties clearly until the last, — serene in his beautiful and 
firm faith, — and soon after noon of that day passed 
quietly away. On the 5th of September he was buried 
from St. Bridget's Church, and his remains lie in the 
little cemetery at Plainville. 

An impressive and most appropriate service in 
memory of Dr. Goessmann was held in the chapel of 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College on Wednesday 
morning, October 12, at which addresses were made 
by President Butterfield, Professor Chandler of 
Columbia University, President Stone of Purdue Uni- 
versity, and Professor Wellington of Amherst. The 



LATER YEARS 105 

service was closed by the Rev. Dr. Cummings of Holy 
Cross Church, Holyoke, who offered prayer and pro- 
nounced the Benediction. 

Goessmann was a teacher in a wide sense. He not 
only taught his pupils in the class-room and labora- 
tory, and trained his assistants, but he made the Col- 
lege the nursery of agricultural chemists for other in- 
stitutions throughout the land. By his lectures and 
talks, his reports and bulletins, he taught and educated 
the public. In the lecture-room and laboratory he was 
painstaking and inspired his students to grasp the 
problems he set before them. As an experimenter he 
had readiness and skill, and could attain important 
results with the minimum possible means. No one 
who came in contact with him could fail to be struck 
with the accuracy and extent of his knowledge and the 
retentiveness of his memory. But he was more to his 
pupils than a friend and teacher. He was the 'Be- 
loved Goessmann ' — the object of their admiration 
and affection on account of his goodness, gentleness, 
modesty, and patience, his high principle, his unfailing 
cordiality, his unceasing interest in their welfare, and 
the clearness of his intellectual vision. He was a fine 
example of the Christian philosopher. 

At Gottingen he devoted himself to the discovery of 
new truths. After he came to America the utility of 
science, especially in his chosen field, was always up- 
permost in his mind. He was always tracing abstract 
principles to their practical applications, and thus 
bringing scientific knowledge within reach of the far- 
mer and the general public. Quick to read the signs of 



106 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

the times, he had a clear comprehension of the actual 
conditions and the needs of chemical education in this 
country. 

He lived to see the most remarkable changes in the 
science which he had himself so successfully cultivated. 
But like his great master, he preferred demonstration 
to speculation; and although ready to adopt what was 
established by experiment, however it might conflict 
with his previous views, he was strongly opposed to 
innovations based upon mere hypotheses. His pro- 
found love of truth made him the cautious, painstak- 
ing, persevering inquirer he was. He was a student of 
facts. Like Faraday, he could 'trust a fact.' He 
searched for facts and taught their value. He cared 
rather to gather them than to deduce from them 
general laws. Slow to generalize, in his judgments he 
was conservative and independent. 

Admirably fitted by tradition, training, experience, 
and temperament for the life of a teacher and investi- 
gator, he brought to the service of the College a singu- 
larly happy combination of qualities — genuine devo- 
tion to his subject, great capacity for work, the power 
to kindle enthusiasm in others, a well-balanced mind 
and body, and a robust physique. In the retrospect of 
his life one is struck with the amount of labour which 
he performed. Always at work, never in haste, sys- 
tematic beyond most men, perfect order pervaded all 
that he did. In his speech he never wholly lost his 
foreign accent and German idioms. Yet as a writer he 
had a good style and wrote English with facility and 
ease, — with scarcely a trace of the involution of his 



LATER YEARS 107 

mother tongue, — expressing himself in clear and 
forceful language. His writings show the clear thinker 
and the well-stored head. His researches embrace a 
wide range in chemical science, and in analytical, 
technical, and agricultural chemistry are marked by 
high attainment. He was not a writer of books, yet 
in total amount of production, if not in variety and 
depth of interest, he may fairly be compared with 
Noah Webster and President Hitchcock, unquestion- 
ably the two most fertile writers Amherst has known. 
His first contribution to chemical science appeared in 
1853, and thereafter an uninterrupted series of con- 
tributions to chemistry flowed from his pen for fifty- 
four years. They remain an enduring monument to 
their author. 



LETTERS OF ERIEDRICH WOHLER 




FRIEDKICH WOHLER 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 

GoTTiNGEN, 3 January 1858. 
Dear Doctor, — 

Your kind and interesting letter of December 3 re- 
minds me that I have not yet answered your first one 
of June 26. Therefore, I must not delay any longer, 
though I must admit that I have nothing to say that is 
worth sending across the ocean. I thank you heartily 
for all your communications, which I have read with 
great interest, and which fully confirm the impressions 
I have received of life and conditions in the new world. 
I need not tell you that the news of your pleasant voy- 
age and safe arrival has pleased us more than anything 
else. For a journey of that kind, compared with a 
journey from here to Fritzlar, must always be con- 
sidered a venture. It pleased me also to hear that your 
new sphere of activity meets your expectations. Still, 
owing to Eastwick's promises and considering your 
own trustworthiness and sense of honour, I never had 
any doubts about the result. At all events you are to 
be congratulated on having made and carried out this 
resolution, for there is no doubt that a sojourn in 
America is going to have the greatest influence upon 
your whole future life, even though you do nothing 
more than endeavour to acquire the good qualities for 
which the Americans are noted, their perseverance, 
self-reliance, their spirit of enterprise — all qualities 
that so often fail in us Germans. And then, the oppor- 



in CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

tunity to take a broader view of the world by studying 
men and conditions on a great scale. In particular, I 
congratulate you on your success in your new field, and 
having at this early stage improved upon the method of 
refining sugar. Not being familiar with the regulations 
governing patents, I am unable to judge of the merits 
of your process. I am inclined to think that it would be 
easier and more to your advantage to sell your process 
to individual factories. In this I shall do all in my power 
to assist you. First of all you might apply to Hurtzig. 

Respecting the new sugar plant, I have notified 
Kopp by sending him the main points of your letter, 
noting also that you intend sending the seed. Not 
until after reading your exhaustive monograph con- 
cerning this research can I judge of its adaptability 
for publication in the Annalen. Meanwhile, I am in 
favour of it, provided it is not too detailed and tech- 
nical. This matter seems to me to be of great impor- 
tance, provided the plant can be raised in Germany 
and other countries. In the latter case you will have 
the distinction of having introduced it into Germany. 

Here everything remains unchanged. Limpricht, 
Geuther, and Wicke send their greetings. Wicke has 
become professor extr., Limpricht and Boedeker asses- 
sors at the University Society. Deville was here again 
in the autumn. I am enclosing the results of our last 
researches,^ I presume you have seen in the Annalen 
the paper on the new silicium compounds by Buff and 
myself, as well as the experiments with titanium. De- 
ville and I have now succeeded in producing a nitro- 

* 'Neue Beobachtungen iiber das Bor und einige seiner Verbindungen.' 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 113 

gen-silicium having the same behaviour as nitrogen. 
Probably you have heard of little Engelhardt's ^ de- 
parture for America as assistant to Professor Clark, 
who coaxed him over. 

Farewell. Best greetings to the Eastwicks and 
kindly remember. 

Your 

WoHLER. 

In case you have an opportunity to see Herr Booth 
at the mint, an old pupil of mine, give him my best 
greetings. I took care that he received my letter of 
thanks for the beautiful minerals, which you were kind 
enough to help unpack. Please also remember me to 
Gillingham, Magee and Garrigues. Be sure to ask the 
latter to procure for me a few more specimens of the 
beautiful graphite on quartz, of which he let me have a 
small piece, and also to tell me the locality they come 
from. The graphite without the quartz would be of 
little interest to me. It is especially important for me 
to have crystallized graphite, which is said to occur in 
North America. 

Whlr. 

I am anxious to hear in your next letter whether the 
Messrs. Eastwick's business remains unaffected by the 
great financial crisis. 

GoTTiNGEN, 9 March 1858. 

Dear Gossmann, — 

Permit me to recommend to you most particularly 
the bearer, Herr Stephani. He has been working in my 

^ Francis E. Engelhardt, Dr. Goessmann's successor at Syracuse. 



114 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

laboratory this winter and I know him to be an excel- 
lent young man. He will tell you what brings him to 
America and also all that has happened here. Kindly 
see that he has an opportunity to meet the Messrs. 
Eastwick, Booth, Garrigues, etc. I hope that you are 
doing well and that you have received my letter of 
January 3. Your preliminary communication on the 
sugar plant was long ago printed in the Annalen. My 
best greetings to the Messrs. Eastwick and other 
friends. Pardon the shortness of this letter, which I 
am obliged to write in a hurry, as Stephani is about to 
depart. 

In best friendship, 

Your 

WOHLER. 
GOTTINGEN, 31 Oct. 1858. 

Dear Doctor, — 

I am ashamed of myself for not having answered ere 
this your kind and very interesting letter of August 1. 
I received it at Karlsruhe, where I had gone from 
Munchen with Liebig in order to attend the meeting of 
Naturalists.^ It proved to be a brilliant success and 
was attended by nearly all the chemists of Germany. 
Kuhlmann from Lille, Despretz, Nickles, Grandeau, 
Troost from Paris were there. From here besides my- 
self were Limpricht and Wicke (also Dr. Spiegelberg 
and the troublesome Bialloblotzky). 

I have read with pleasure what you say about 
North America and its people, and also let Liebig read 

* Deutsche Naturforscher imd Aerzte. 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 115 

your letter. No doubt your views are quite correct, 
and I am especially pleased to have you express them, 
for it shows that you know how to adapt yourself to 
new conditions and take advantage of things intel- 
lectual and material. Apart from the fact that by 
accepting this position you have laid the foundation 
for a fine career within your sphere of activity, this 
sojourn will be of the greatest importance in moulding 
your future life. It would have interested me to hear 
of your relations with the Eastwicks, how they are 
progressing, and whether you are satisfied with the 
conditions. I suppose everything is favourable, since 
you have never said anything to the contrary. 

Doubtless you have long ago learned that your mon- 
ograph on Sorghum has been printed in Henneberg's 
Landwirthsch. Journal, and also received free copies as 
well as your honorarium for the same. I have read it 
with great interest, and have also forwarded a portion 
of the seeds to Bartling as well as to Dr. Henneberg. 
The latter has sown them on a piece of land at 
Weende and the plants are thriving. Yesterday he 
sent several specimens to the laboratory, where Dr. 
Schwanert is going to ascertain the amount of sugar 
they contain. Seeds have also been sent to Henneberg 
by the Ministerium for experiment. Much attention 
is being paid to this plant in Germany and France (I 
believe in Italy, too). Your consignment of seeds and 
sugar has also reached me, for which accept my hearti- 
est thanks. I have added the little specimens of sugar 
to the laboratory collection as a present from you, and 
turned over the beautiful sugar-loaf to my wife. She 



116 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

could not be persuaded to open the latter until re- 
cently, when she was out of sugar. We then had an 
opportunity to admire its beauty and quality when 
drinking our coffee, at the same time remembering you 
gratefully. Geuther secured some seeds for Schleiden : 
a part of them I kept to plant, the remainder were 
given to Bartling for our Botanical Garden, and to 
V. Martins, for the Botanical Garden at Miinchen. I 
hope that at least part of the lot will thrive well at one 
or the other place. 

I was glad to hear that Stephani had arrived and 
had made your acquaintance. Give him my best 
greetings. Dr. Bode of Cassel, who could not find a 
position here, finally left for America on an uncer- 
tainty and is, I believe, in Cincinnati. We have not 
heard anything for a long time from Engelhardt who, 
as you know, went to America with Prof. Clark. You 
also write nothing concerning Garrigues, Gillingham, 
Pugh, Joy, and the others who were here. Has not the 
latter become a professor in New York? Have you 
ever made the acquaintance of Mr. Booth, my first 
American pupil? All this interests me very much. 
There are now only three Americans working in the 
laboratory, Messrs. Harris, Little and Stewart, besides 
two Englishmen. I have accepted only 22 laboratory 
students this semester, transferring half a dozen to 
Limpricht in order to avoid the rush in winter. Dr. 
Geuther still has your position, employing Fabian as an 
assistant. Limpricht has for assistants Dr. Schwanert, 
Dr. V. Uslar and Dr. Fittig. I have transferred the 
6-hour Practicum to the old hospital, where Dr. v. Uslar 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 117 

resides. This is of great advantage as long as we have 
no new laboratory. It is still uncertain whether we are 
to have a new building, as the government has granted 
only 27,000 thlr., instead of the 38,000 thlr. it will cost 
according to the plans submitted. In order to design 
a laboratory which shall be unsurpassed, I have sent 
Limpricht and the architect Doltz to "Wiesbaden, 
Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Miinchen, in 
order to inspect and study the details of all the labo- 
ratories in those places. The agricultural laboratory 
under Wicke is well attended, whereas Boedeker is 
not popular with the medical students. 

I suppose you have an opportunity to read the An- 
nalen, so I need not report anything concerning new 
work. Perhaps you have already received the July 
number, and know that the remarkable silicium- 
hydrogen gas may now be prepared chemically in the 
same manner as phosphorus-hydrogen gas. At pres- 
ent, I am again experimenting with nitrogen-silicium. 

Nothing has occurred here that is worth mentioning. 
A few have died (but no professors — Oesterley, v. 
Bobers) ; others are engaged, e. g. Frlein Augusta Baum. 
I myself have become a grandfather for the second 
time. All the members of my family are very well, my 
three oldest daughters having accompanied me on my 
last journey to the beautiful Bavarian mountains. I 
have just now spoken to Geuther, who sends his best 
greetings. He does not know what became of the 
honorarium for your monograph. He will attend to 
the matter and have the money sent to your brother, 
if he has not already received it. 



118 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

Farewell. Remember me to the Eastwicks and to all 
the friends, and let me hear from you very soon. When 
you see Mr. Booth, tell him that a little more osmium- 
iridium, in which he is so rich, would be very welcome 
to me. No doubt an opportunity will present itself so 
it can be sent here. 

Cordially your 

WOHLER. 

GoTTENGEN, 12 March 1860. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

First of all, my hearty thanks for your very full and 
interesting letter of January 24, for the pieces of 
graphite and the extraordinarily fine photographs, all 
of which have made the long voyage successfully and 
reached me safely. It is a great satisfaction to know 
that one is not being forgotten by old pupils and 
friends, and to receive from them so many tokens of 
attachment, and that you are one of them. 

It gives me peculiar pleasure also to know that all 
goes well with you, that you are contented in your 
interesting surroundings and that you have so many 
opportunities to see great and remarkable things, to 
know the world and to gather experiences which will 
be of the greatest advantage to you in the future. I 
envy you your good fortune in having made such a 
fine voyage.^ I have also shown your letter to Hofr. 
Wagner, Waltershausen, Geuther and my own family, 
and all have read it with great interest. It is striking 
what an array of new impressions one may receive in 

' To the West Indies. 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 119 

America of which we in old, used-up Europe have 
no conception. The contents of your letter, as well as 
its minuteness of detail, proved that you do not think 
ill of me because I did not write you for such an unpar- 
donably long time. Indeed, it shames me to confess 
that my last letter was dated 31 October 1858 — if I 
am not mistaken. The news you sent concerning the 
former Gottingen Americans gave me much pleasure, 
and also that you have acted as protector to little 
Engelhardt, thus probably laying the foundation for 
his advancement. Only one have you forgotten to 
mention — Professor Joy of New York, who with his 
beautiful wife visited us last summer, though we have 
not had a word from him since. I should be obliged if 
you would write him a few lines in my name, asking 
whether he has received the diploma of the Leopold 
Academy^ and the silver mirror from Liebig, both hav- 
ing been forwarded at the time to Rinteln according to 
his directions. I hope he will overcome his dilatoriness 
and write me himself. 

As you have probably seen the Annalen, and there- 
fore know already, I shall write nothing about chemi- 
cal news from our laboratory, except that there is 
much work being done and that it is well attended. I 
am aware that you have not yet received this year's 
March issue. At present I am having Niemann make 
an investigation of the famous Coca {Erythroxylon 
coca of Peru) and, as far as we have ascertained, it 
very probably contains an organic base which may be 

* Academia Caesarea Leopoldino-Carolina Naturae Curiosorum (Kaiser- 
lich-leopoldinisch-carolinische deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, 
Halle). 



120 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

crystallized and which resembles atropin. We have 
christened it Cocaine. I have received 25 lb. of coca 
from Vienna, originally from the Novara's tour round 
the world. Probably you are familiar with the new, 
easy method of producing violet chromium chloride, 
and know that by melting the same with zinc, metal- 
lic chromium in microscopic crystals may easily be 
obtained. 

I do not know whether I have written you that we 
are going to have a new laboratory here which will, I 
hope, in construction and equipment surpass all other 
laboratories. 38,000 thlr. have been granted therefor, 
it is already under roof, and the finishing of the inte- 
rior is so far advanced that it will be ready for use next 
autumn. There will be room for all Practica except 
those of Wicke and Boedeker. 



b c 

■- ^^^^^-^^^^^ 



a a is the wall 
b the old laboratory 

c one-storey centre building with the principal 
auditorium. 



The old laboratory, which will form part of the new 
wing, is being remodelled and made to harmonize with 
the rest of the tremendous building by having two 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 121 

high and many small chimneys. Limpricht, whom I 
sent with the architect Doltz to inspect all modern 
laboratories in Germany, has the distinction of plan- 
ning all the details of the building and the interior 
equipment. I am sorry to say that he is now going 
away from here, having received a call to Greifswald 
as ordinarius with a salary of 1200 thlr. He has also 
been entrusted with the erection of a new laboratory, 
a task that will now be easy for him to perform. I 
could not keep him here longer, although he was 
appointed ordinarius with a salary of 800 thlr. 

I have taken advantage of this occasion to reor- 
ganize the laboratory staff. I am conducting the 
daily Practicum, assisted by Dr. Beilstein. Geuther 
and V. Uslar both have charge of the 24-hour Pro£- 
ticum, Dr. Fittig of the 6-hour Practicum. All lab- 
oratory students have to report to me and are to pay 
all my fees to the Qudstur. But the assistants receive 
from me, in addition to an increase of their fixed 
salaries, a certain share of the fees. 

You probably know already that our good old Haus- 
mann has died, after long suffering, at the age of 76. 
S. V. Waltershausen has taken his place. Moreover, a 
young man is to be called — not expensive but excel- 
lent — as a specialist in geognosy and palaeontology. 
Hausmann's beautiful and complete collection (oryc- 
togn. geognost. petrif. technical, metallurgical, anti- 
quarian) is to be sold. You would do the heirs a great 
favour by finding a trustworthy purchaser. Be sure to 
let Professor Joy know of this, as perhaps the com- 
plete collection would be welcomed in one of your 



122 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

institutions of learning. They ask 6000 thlr., I be- 
lieve, but they may be willing to take less. Be sure not 
to forget this matter. 

Good old Berthold is dying, and old Conradi has 
become so infirm that before long he may follow 
Hausmann. You have probably known for some time 
that our celebrated mathematician, Dirichlet, is dead. 
Riemann has been made ordinarius and member of 
the Society of Sciences — a prodigious mathematical 
head. I have been asked to succeed Hausmann as 
Permanent Secretary of the Society. Wagner's disease 
of the chest has led him to be placed on the half- 
retired list, and consequently Professor Meissner, one 
of our former pupils, has been called as professor of 
physiology. As a result, the rooms in the Physiological 
Institute have become so crowded that Boedeker was 
obliged to transfer his laboratory to the old hospital. 
As compensation for swallowing the disagreeable pill, 
he received an increase of salary of 200 thlr. More- 
over, I have obtained for him the work of preparing a 
new edition of Berzelius's Chemie, and for Dr. Geuther 
a new edition of Otto-Graham's Chemie. Hanssen has 
received a call to Berlin and, I am sorry to say, has 
accepted it. His daughter is engaged to a Prussian 
office!, and so is Baum's oldest daughter. Both officers 
were aides to counts and princes studying here. Now 
I am through gossiping. 

Farewell, dear Gossmann, and delight me with more 
news from you very soon. Best greetings from my 
family as well as from Limpricht, Wicke and Geuther. 

* Konigliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen. 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 123 

Remember me to the Eastwicks and all the old Got- 
tinger. There are now only three Americans in the 
laboratory — Stewart, Parkman and Hart. Whenever 
you can get hold of some genuine graphite and other 
minerals, please remember me. My greetings to Booth 
also. 

In best friendship, 

Your 

WoHLER. 

GSttingen, 24 Febr. 1863. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

To-day only a few lines acknowledging the receipt 
of your letter and to thank you for the interesting 
communications. The latter I forwarded at once to 
Oberbergrath Schwarzenberg in Cassel, begging him 
to comply with your request in regard to the condi- 
tions governing the salt manufacturing industry. I did 
not receive an answer until yesterday (without your 
letter). He has taken the necessary steps at mining 
headquarters and has been assured of a reply, which, 
however, has not yet been received, as delays are not 
unusual there. As soon as I receive the papers, I shall 
send them to you and write more fully. 

I congratulate you heartily on your marriage and 
am glad that you are succeeding so well. Nevertheless, 
I have, when asked about it, proposed you as professor 
of technical chemistry at the newly established Poly- 
technic School at Braunschweig, and I know that they 
are thinking of you seriously. But do not depend too 
much upon it, as a decision may not be reached for 



124 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

a year. In the meantime Dr. Seyfert is delivering 
lectures. ^ 

Geuther has received a call to Jena to succeed Leh- 
mann, and has accepted. Although I was unwilling to 
lose him, nevertheless it was I who proposed him, 
when asked by the Curatorium. More next time. 

In best friendship, 

Your 

WOHLER. 

GoTTiNGEN, 4 March 1863. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

I hope that you have received through Professor 
Joy my note of February 24. I have finally obtained 
from the mining headquarters in Cassel the informa- 
tion concerning the Attendorf Salt Works, and send 
it to you with the hope that it will meet your ex- 
pectations. 

I had intended to write you more fully on this occa- 
sion, but I am so preoccupied just now that I have to 
be sparing of my time. And yet I should be sorry to 
delay longer any change in your affairs expected by 
you. But I shall write you shortly, although, as you 
very well know, the monotony of our life here affords 
little occasion to report anything new. I shall then 
give you first of all a detailed description of our splen- 
did new laboratory, which, to be sure, cost 40,000 thlr. 
but is, in my opinion, better arranged than any other. 
There is plenty of room to provide comfortably for at 
least 80 laboratory students. 

Let me call your attention to another thing. Does 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 125 

not sea-water mother liquor contain chloride of cal- 
cium? — now so highly valued, because with Chili 
saltpetre it may be easily changed into nitrate of 
potash. 

I asked you to pardon this short letter. Write me 
very soon, for every one of your letters gives me pleas- 
ure. I should also like to know whether my consign- 
ment through your brother has been delivered to you 
promptly. 

Cordially your 

WoHLER. 

GoTTiNGEN, 10 Jan. 1866. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

I have not heard from you for a long time. But it is 
my fault, for I believe I owe you an answer to your last 
letter. You have perhaps heard from Prof. Joy how I 
am and that all goes well with me. To-day only a few 
lines and these in great haste. 

A former pupil of mine, Herr Meinhard Alsberg, 
later assistant to Geuther in Jena, wishes me to com- 
mend him to you, as he believes that you would have 
an influential voice in obtaining for him an appoint- 
ment as assistant in chemistry at a technical school in 
Philadelphia. He is at present in Philadelphia and in- 
tends to apply for the position. So far as I know him, 
I can strongly recommend him. Moreover, he has 
already recommended himself through several good 
investigations, the results of which have been pub- 
lished in the Annalen. 

This is all I have to say. I hope all goes well with 



126 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

you. When you write me again, kindly send me your 
photograph and your wife's. 
In old friendship, 

Your 

WOHLER. 

GoTTiNGEN, 1 August 1866. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

I am reproaching myself for having left your kind 
letter of April 14 unanswered for such an unpardon- 
ably long time. Be indulgent with me and be assured 
that it has given me great joy, for it is always a satis- 
faction to me to receive such proofs of true attachment 
from my old pupils, especially when they are accom- 
panied by news of their prosperity, as in your case. 

It has been a great pleasure to me to receive the 
photographs of yourself and your wife, thus enriching 
my collection of pictures of those dear to me. Accept 
my sincere thanks for them. All the members of my 
family, who remember you very well, have also been 
interested to see how you look now, and are glad to 
have made your wife's acquaintance, at least through 
the picture; likewise Frau and Fraulein Kreuzhagen, 
to whom I had to show the pictures. I may here 
remark that the latter (Anna) is to marry a German 
physician in London, who formerly studied here. 

I must thank you too for your various publications, 
which I leave to others to read and report to me, not 
being myself familiar enough with the English lan- 
guage. I am glad to hear that you are contented 
with your position, and hope and trust that you are 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 127 

making yourself indispensable to the companj^ that 
your future is assured, unless another sphere of useful- 
ness may be open to you in the meanwhile, which 
might be more congenial to you and offer still greater 
pecuniary advantages. 

To judge by a few utterances in your letter, you 
are still having an eye to teaching, although you seem 
to be aware that it is diflBcult for a foreigner to obtain 
such a position. Here in Germany there is great de- 
mand for such places. I could not hold out any pros- 
pects for you at this moment. 

While admitting that I am unfamiliar with condi- 
tions in America, it surprised me that your company, 
which produces such a colossal amount of salt, does 
not start a subsidiary business, e.g. a soda factory or 
a manufactory utilizing the ingredients of the mother 
liquor. Yet I am aware you have already thought of 
this yourself and have your reasons for its imprac- 
ticability. 

I rejoice to hear of your domestic happiness and 
your fatherhood. When I think that I studied with 
your father at Marburg and that now his son tells me 
of his children, I realize from this and many other 
things how old I am. Yesterday I celebrated my 66 
birthday, and 'unser Lehen wdhret 70 Jahr und wenn 
ist hock kommt 80.' Moreover, I am feeling well and 
can attend to my duties as I have always done. But I 
cannot attend to the special functions of the strenuous 
Practicum as well as formerly, as every semester sev- 
enty or eighty workers use up a quantity of material 
and tools. Therefore I must leave the principal details 



128 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

to my four assistants (Professor v. Uslar, Professor 
Beilstein, Dr. Fittig and Dr. Htibner), and it works 
quite well. Besides, I have a special assistant to help 
me in my lectures. 

You would find here many things changed and 
many quite new. Besides the large new laboratory 
there are fine new conservatories in the Botanical 
Garden, and in front of the Weender gate (which no 
longer exists), at the end of the Botanical Garden, is a 
new, large, very stately hall which cost nearly 100,000 
thlr. Adjoining the conservatory a new residence has 
been built for the director. The enlargement of the 
library is also being considered, but owing to the sad 
war now prevailing this project will not be carried out. 
Of the latter conditions I shall write nothing, they 
being known to you through the newspapers. 

Last month when the king with the whole Han- 
overian army and all the munitions of war took refuge 
here, we were living in a wild, great military camp, 
daily fearing the outbreak of a battle in our immediate 
neighbourhood. After the departure of our army Got- 
tingen was occupied by the Prussians. Then came the 
disastrous battle of Langensalza, followed by the cap- 
itulation of our army. The Prussians have also been 
victorious in the south, where they occupy all of Hesse, 
Nassau, Darmstadt, Frankfurt and a great part of 
Bavaria. Their troops are already near or in Wiirz- 
burg. At present there is an armistice. It is said that 
all of Hanover, the Electorate of Hesse, and Nassau 
will be annexed to Prussia. But enough of these 
painful events. 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 129 

Hofmann's report of the Exhibition of 1862 ^ has 
been ready for you for a long time. It affords me pleas- 
ure to give you this fine copy, which I have received as 
a gift from Hofmann himself (with a dedication in his 
own hand) . But it is useless to me, since I do not un- 
derstand enough English. Now I shall not wait any 
longer for an opportunity to send it to you, but will do 
so through Dr. Fliigel of Leipzig, commissioner of the 
Smithsonian Institution. I ought to have done it long 
ago. Farewell now, dear Doctor. My best remem- 
brances to your wife, and have always a kindly feel- 
ing for. 

Your truly devoted, 

WoHLER. 

My wife and three daughters (the fourth is on a 
visit at Hanau, the fifth is married in Hanover) send 
their best greetings and are glad that you still remem- 
ber them. 

Kindly have the enclosed letter forwarded to Eso- 
pus. Should there be no post connexion with that 
place, address it to Columbia College, New York, 
whence it will be sent to Esopus. 

GoTTESTGEN, 17 Dec. 1868. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

My best thanks for your letter, which was handed to 
me by Herr Darmstadt, who is now working diligently 
in our laboratory — at present on boron-nitrogen. 

^ Second International Exhibition, London. On the fly-leaf is written: 
'Herrn Hofrath Wohler hochachtungsvoll u. freundschaftlicht der verf.'; 
and underneath: 'Herrn Dr. GOssmann zur freundlichen Erinnerung an F. 
Wohler.' 



130 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

The occasion of these lines is your former attendant, 
Frau Kornrumpf . She told me last summer that you 
were godfather to her boy, now five years old, request- 
ing me to remind you that thus far you have failed to 
make a present to your godchild. I had forgotten 
all about it, until her husband called on me yesterday 
with the express purpose of again reminding me of it. 
I hasten, therefore, to let you know the wishes of these 
evidently very poor people, hoping that you will con- 
sider them and send them a little present of money — 
perhaps a bill of exchange on Engelhardt's mother. 
These people said they had given her a letter to you 
some years ago, but had received no answer thereto. 
In case you feel inclined to be benevolent, you can let 
them have the money through one of the Americans 
studying here, for instance, Mr. Carmichael. But 
should you want to send it directly here, you may ad- 
dress it to me. 

Here everything is going its old course, with some 
modifications, since we are Prussians. Probably your 
family have told you of the calamity caused here and 
also in Fritzlar by the recent terrific storm. During 
the Mass the roof of the cathedral fell in, killing 22 
persons, mostly women. Here, too, houses were un- 
roofed, chimneys thrown down and a great number of 
the most beautiful old trees were uprooted. Our public 
squares are in an especially sad condition. 

Please remember me to your wife. 
In best friendship. 

Your 

WOHLER. 










A LETTEU OF FUIEDRICH WOHLER (facsimile) 



/^ ^ Z^*^*^ ^y/^y 7^^^' ^e^c^^^-^ee,^ 
X-V r^'-U^.- /~^y^^ /^sA^/^ ^^^.^^ 





LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 131 

I congratulate you on the position in Massachu- 
setts, upon which you are going to enter after New 
Year. 

GoTTiNGEN, 11 Aug. 1869. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

Only a few lines to ask your indulgence for not an- 
swering your letter of May 17 of last year, which was 
delivered to me by Herr Darmstadt. Moreover, this 
gentleman, who was working very diligently in my 
laboratory and has since received his degree, has 
no doubt told you of his success and how things 
are here. He has now become a brewer, and is 
going to be married or has already done so. He is 
an excellent fellow and made a favourable impression 
on me. 

First of all let me heartily congratulate you on your 
new position. I am delighted that you are having such 
a successful career in America. You are truly to be 
envied for having seen so much of the world, and had 
such great and varied experiences beyond the sea. 
May you continue to prosper. 

I ought to have acknowledged the receipt of the 10 
thlr. long ago, for you have thereby made the poor 
people very happy. I had to give them your address 
and guessed they wanted to thank you themselves, 
though I promised to do it for them. 

The bearer of this is Dr. Storrs from Amherst, whom 
I can recommend most particularly to your favour. 
For two years he has been studying chemistry here 
and now hopes to find a desirable position, if it be 



132 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

only as an assistant. Perhaps you can do something 
for him 

In best friendship, 

Your 

WOHLER. 

GoTTiNGEN, 23 Nov. 1875. 
Dear Gossmann, — 

You may ascribe it to my conscientiousness in keep- 
ing promises, if I take the liberty of troubling you with 
the request of another. You remember well Frau 
Kornrumpf, your former attendant, whom you have 
once before aided with money. For years she has been 
calling on me from time to time, inquiring whether I 
have received a new contribution for her. Finally I 
had to promise to write you, calling your attention to 
her poverty. I always delayed writing, fearing it 
would be fruitless to request you for further aid. 
Whatever I could give her was only a little, since I am 
contributing a sufficient amount towards the support of 
the poor. Yesterday she came again, telling me of the 
distress she and her husband were in, and asked if 
nothing yet had come for her. From all she (and also 
recently her husband) told me, and what seemed to 
me truthful, they must be in great need at present. 
They do not live here any longer, but at Eldagsen, 
where the husband is a railway workman. I have 
now kept my promise, and heartily wish that I may be 
successful and you will once more send a small con- 
tribution to these poor people. Should you be dis- 
posed to do so, you may send the money to me. 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 133 

I hope all continues to go well with you. For a long 
time I have heard nothing from you. Here things are 
going on well and we are trying to be good Prussians. 
Last semester the University was attended by 1080, 
the present one, by a little over 1000. The laboratory 
attendance is so great that there is scarcely room left, 
and an enlargement is being considered. I am now 76 
years old, and no longer concern myself with the de- 
tails of instruction and gave up lecturing some time 
ago. I have only the general direction of the Institute. 
Hiibner is now the principal one lecturing, having 
been proposed by me, and appointed professor ordi- 
narius and assistant director of the Institute, v. Uslar 
is head of the pharmaceutical division. I have in all 
six assistants, every one of them indispensable. Prob- 
ably you have heard that Fittig, my former assistant 
whom you remember well, has become professor at \J 
Tubingen. He has now received and accepted a call to 
Strassburg to succeed Baeyer, who has been called to 
Munchen as Liebig's successor. 

My family are well. My eldest daughter is married 
to Burgomaster Merkel of this place, has four daugh- 
ters, the oldest of which is engaged to a physician, so 
that I have good prospects of becoming a great-grand- 
father. My youngest daughter is married in London, 
and has three children. My son, who is an economist 
at Rodelheim near Frankfurt, lately rejoiced in the 
birth of a daughter, after the marriage had been 
without issue for sixteen years. My other three 
daughters are still single and are very likely to re- 
main so. 



134 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 

A few days ago our botanist Bartling died, 77 years 
old. 

Farewell. Greetings from me to your dear wife, of 
whom at least I possess a photograph, and kindly 
remember, 

Your truly devoted, 

WOHLER. 

My best greetings also to Professor Clark. I shall 
send you with this letter (under separate cover) a little 
joke, which is not intended for publication. 

GoTTiNGEai, 25 February 1876. 

Dear Colleague Gossmann, — 

A thousand thanks for your exhaustive, interesting 
letter, the extraordinarily beautiful photographs and 
the money for the Kornrumpfs. 

While I was reading in the first the sketch of your 
varied life in America, I thought of the remarkable 
occurrences in this world, how I could not foresee 55 
years ago, when I began my studies at Marburg, that 
my fellow-student Gossmann from Fritzlar, who 
played the flute so well and serenaded the belles of 
Marburg so often, while I held the lantern, should one 
day have a son, who would become one of my dearest 
pupils, and that the latter would now be living in 
America, for 19 years, in full activity and laying the 
foundation for a most happy existence. You can imag- 
ine how interesting it was to me to have such a vivid 
picture of your family. The same is true of the picture 
of Clark, to whom please express my hearty thanks. . I 
consider him also as one of my most lovable pupils. 



LETTERS OF FRIEDRICH WOHLER 135 

especially since he and poor Manross ^ were the first 
Americans who worked under me here. Only one had 
been here earlier, Mr. Booth, now in Philadelphia; but 
at that time I was still at Cassel. One of the half dozen 
Americans, who are working again in the laboratory 
this winter, says he heard of Clark's going to Japan. 

The money for the Kornrumpfs, amounting to 12 
thlr. 14 gr., was paid to me from Koln. At first I 
had difficulty in finding the people, since they are no 
longer here, but, as I afterwards learned, live at Har- 
degsen. The poor devil of a husband, who finally came 
to me for the money, was almost moved to tears. He 
evidently did not expect so large a sum. He wished to 
write you himself in order to thank you. I told him I 
would do it for him. 

Now I have been interrupted by visitors waiting to 
see me, and it is high time for this letter to be posted, 
so that it shall arrive in due season to-morrow for the 
steamer at Bremen. Farewell. Remember me to your 
wife and greet all who remember me, including Pro- 
fessor Shepard. 

In best friendship, 

Your WoHLER. 

Perhaps an opportunity will occur to you to have a 
translation of the enclosed announcement printed in an 
American mathematical journal or newspaper. If not, 
then send it to the leading bookseller in New York. 

1 Newton Spaulding Manross (Yale, 1850; Ph.D. Gottingen, 1852) of 
Bristol, Conn., and William S. Clark were fellow-students in Wcihler's 
Laboratory. In 1861-62, during Clark's absence at the front in the 
Civil War, Manross taught his classes at Amherst College. At the end 
of the year he raised a company of volunteers at Bristol, was made cap- 
tain, and fell at Antietam leading his men. 



APPENDIX 



ABBREVIATIONS OF FOREIGN 
PUBLICATIONS 

Amtl. Ber. deutsch. Naturf. u. Aerzte . kmWichev Bericht iiber die 

Versammlung deutscher 
Naturforscher und Aerzte. 

Ann. Chem. Pharm Annalen der Chemie und 

Pharmacie, Leipzig und 
Heidelberg. Wohler, Liebig 
und Kopp. 

Ann. chim. phys Annales de chimie et de phy- 
sique, Paris. Gay-Lussac, 
Arago, Chevreul, Dumas, 
Pelouze, Boussingault, Reg- 
nault, de Senarmont et 
Wurtz. 

Centr. Agrik.-Cliem BiedermannsCentral-Blattfur 

Agrikulturchemie und ra- 
tionellen Landwirthschafts- 
Betrieb, Leipzig. 

Chem. Centr Chemisches Central-Blatt, 

Leipzig. 

Chem.-Pharm. Centr Chemisch - Pharmaceutisehes 

Central-Blatt, Leipzig. 

Chem. Gaz Chemical Gazette, London, 

W. Francis. 

Chem. News Chemical News, London. W. 

Crookes. 

Comptes rendus de VAcad. des Sci. . . Comptes rendus de I'Acade- 

mie des Sciences, Paris. 

Journ. Chem. Soc Journal of the Chemical Soci- 
ety of London. 

Journ. de pharm Journal de pharmacie et des 

sciences accessoires, Paris. 

Journ. fiir Landwirthschaft Journal fur Landwirthschaft, 

Gottingen-Weende. 
W. Henneberg. 



140 ABBREVIATIONS 

Journ. prakt. Chem Journal furpraktischeChemie, 

Leipzig. O. L. Erdmann 
und G. Werther. 

Oesterreich. Landw. Wochenhl Oesterreichisclies landwirth- 

schaftliches Wochenblatt, 
Wien. 

Pharm. Journ. Trans Pharmaceutical Journal and 

Transactions, London. Ja- 
cob Bell. 

Phil. Mag London, Edinburgh, and Dub- 
lin Philosophical Magazine. 
Sir David Brewster, Rich- 
ard Taylor, Sir Robert 
Kane, William Francis, 
John Tyndall. 

Polytech. Journ Polytechnisches Journal, 

Augsburg. 

Quart. Journ. Chem. Soc Quarterly Journal of the 

Chemical Society of Lon- 
don. 

Zeit. anal. Chem Zeitschrift fiir analytische 

Chemie, Wiesbaden. C. R. 
Fresenius. 



LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS OF 
CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN ^ 



1853 

1. Ueber die Bestandtheile der Canthariden. Inaugural-Dis- 
sertation zur Erlangung der philosophischen DoctorwUrde 
von K. A. Goessmann aus Fritzlar. Gottingen, Druck der 
Univ.-Buchdruckerei von E. A. Huth. 1853. 8vo, SS. 38. 

2. Ueber die Natur des Fettes der Canthariden. Ann. Chem. 
Pharm. Bd. Lxxxvi. 1853, S. 317-330; Journ. de pharm. t. 
XXIV. 1853, pp. 378, 379; Chem.-Pharm. Centr. 1854, S. 49, 
'50; Chem. Gaz. vol. xii. 1854, p. 92. 

1854 

3. Ueber die Arachinsaure. Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. Lxxxrx. 
1854, S. 1-11; Journ. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxi. 1854, S. 236-238; 
Polytech. Journ. Bd. cxxxi. 1854, S. 156, 157; Chem.-Pharm. 
Centr. 1854, S. 50, 51; Ann. chim. phys. t. xlvi. 1856, pp. 230- 
232; Quart. Journ. Chem. Soc. vol. viii. 1856, p. 279; Sur 
I'acide de I'huile d'Araehide. Journ. de pharm. t. xxv. 1854, 
pp. 158, 159. 

4. Ueber die Margarinsaure im Fette der Canthariden. Ann. 
Chem. Pharm. Bd. Lxxxix. 1854, S. 123-125; Journ. prakt. 
Chem. Bd. lxi. 1854, S. 238, 239; Chem.-Pharm. Centr. 1854, 
S. 50; Chem. Gaz. vol. xii. 1854, p. 92. 

5. Ueber die Bestandtheile der Cacaobutter (gemeinsam mit 
C. Specht). Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. xc. 1854, S. 126-128; 
Journ. prakt. Chem. Bd. ixii. 1854, S. 310; Chem.-Pharm. 
Centr. 1854, S. 607; Journ. de pharm. t. xxvi. 1854, pp. 238, 
239; Chem. Gaz. vol. xn. 1854, pp. 306-308. 

6. Neue Methode zur Darstellung der Benzoglycolsaure. Ann. 
Chem. Pharm. Bd. xc. 1854, S. 181-184; Journ. prakt. Chem. 

1 A few short papers, usually extracts from some of the longer ones, ap- 
pear more than once in this list. Goessmann was in the habit of sending the 
same paper, with only a few changes, to several publications. 



142 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WEITINGS 

Bd. LXiii. 1854, S. 88, 89; Chem.-Pkarm. Centr. 1854, S. 672; 
Chem. Gaz. vol. xii. 1854, pp. 310-312; Journ. de pharm. t. 
XXVII. 1855, pp. 397-399. 

7. Verwandlung des Thialdins in Leucin. Ann. Chem. Pharm. 
Bd. xc. 1854, S. 184, 185; Journ. prakt Chem. Bd. lxui. 

1854, S. 190; Chem.-Pharm. Centr. 1854, S. 672; Journ. de 
pharm. t. xxvi. 1854, p. 156; Chem. Gaz. vol. xii. 1854, pp. 
188, 325, 326 : — Lettre de M. Wohler a M. Dumas, Comptes 
rendus de I'Acad. des Sci. t. xxxviii. 1854, pp. 555-557. 

8. Ueber die Bildungs-und Bereitungsweise des Aethylamins. 
Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. xci. 1854, S. 122-125; Chem.-Pharm. 
Centr. 1854, S. 751, 752; Ann. chim. phys. t. xui. 1854, p. 246; 
Journ. prakt. Chem. Bd. Lxv. 1855, S. 244; Quart. Journ. 
Chem. Soc. vol. viii. 1856, pp. 161-163. 

9. Beitrag zur Kenntniss des Leucins. Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. 
xci. 1854, S. 129-138; Journ. jyrakt. Chem. Bd. Lxm. 1854, 
S. 375-378; Chem.-Pharm. Centr. 1854, S. 801-803; Ann. 
chim. phys. t. XLii. 1854, p. 499; Chem. Gaz. vol. xu. 1854, 
pp. 467-469; Journ. de pharm. t. xxvii. 1855, pp. 73-75. 

10. Ueber Leucin und Essigsaure-Aldehyd. Vortrag bei der Ver- 
sammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte in Gottingen, 
September 1854. Amtl. Ber. deutsch. Naiurf. u. Aerzte, 1854 
(1860), S. 50. 

1855 

11. Ueber eine neue Bildung des Amarins und Lophins. Ann. 
Chem. Pharm. Bd. xciii. 1855, S. 329-333; Journ. prakt. 
Chem. Bd. lxv. 1855, S. 245-247; Chem.-Pharm. Centr. 1855, 
S. 266; Ann. chim. phys. t. xlv. 1855, pp. 123, 124; Chem. Gaz. 
vol. xiii. 1855, pp. 144-146; Quart. Journ. Chem. Soc. vol. 
vm. 1856, pp. 161-163. 

12. Ueber die Hypogasaure, eine neue Fettsaure im Erdnussol 
(gemeinsam mit H. Scheven). Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. xciv. 

1855, S. 230-235; Journ. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxvi. 1855, S. 83- 
85; Chem.-Pharm. Centr. 1855, S. 468, 469; Chem. Gaz. vol. 
XIII. 1855, pp. 209, 210; Ann. chim. phys. t. xlvi. 1856, pp. 
230-232; Journ. de pharm. t.xxix. 1856, pp. 238, 239; Quart. 
Journ. Chem. Soc. vol. vin. 1856, pp. 279-282. 

1856 

13. Ueber die Verbindungen der Arachinsaure (gemeinsam mit 
H. Scheven). Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. xcvii. 1856, S. 257- 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 143 

265; Joum. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxviii. 1856, S. 179-183; Chem. 
Centr. 1856, S. 309-312; Ann. chim. phys. t. xlvii. 1856, pp. 
382-384 (Berthelot) ibid. pp. 355, 356; Chem. Gaz. vol. 
XIV. 1856, pp. 181-185. 

14. Zur Kenntniss des Lophins (gemeinsam mit E. Atkinson). 
Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. xcvii. 1856, S. 283-294; Joum. 
prakt. Chem. Bd. Lxviu. 1856, S. 154-157; Chem. Centr. 1856, 
S. 420-422; Quart. Joum. Chem. Soc. vol. rx. 1857, pp. 220- 
226; Phil. Mag. (4) vol. xii. 1856, p. 55. 

15. Darstellung des Cumarins. Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. xcviii. 

1856, S. 66; Joum. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxviii. 1856, S. 192; 
Chem. Centr. 1856, S. 478; Chem. Gaz. vol. xiv. 1856, pp. 210, 
211. 

16. Ueber einige Verwandlungsproducte der Hypogasaure (ge- 
meinsam mit G. C Caldwell). Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. 
xcix. 1856, S. 305-314; Chem. Centr. 1856, S. 892, 893; 
Joum. prakt. Chem. Bd. Lxx. 1857, S. 79-81; Ann. chim. 
phys. t. XLix. 1857, pp. Ill, 112; Chem. Gaz. vol. xv. 1857, 
pp. 23, 24; Phil. Mag. (4) vol. xiii. 1857, p. 185. 

17. Mangansaures Kali als Entfarbungsmittel. Ann. Chem. 
Pharm. Bd. xcix. 1856, S. 373-376; Chem. Centr. 1856, S. 735; 
Polytech. Joum. Bd. cxlii. 1856, S. 316, 317; Phil. Mag. 
(4) vol. XII. 1856, p. 304; Joum. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxix. 1857, 
S. 469, 470. 

18. Vortheilhafte Darstellungweise des Styracins. Ann. Chem. 
Pharm. Bd. xcix. 1856, S. 376; Chem. Centr. 1856, S. 735; 
Joum. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxix. 1857, S. 470; Ann. chim. phys. 
t. XLIX. 1857, p. 109. 

19. Triphenylamin, ein Zersetzungsproduet des sauren schwef- 
ligsauren Zimmtsaure-Aldehyd-Ammoniaks. Ann. Chem. 
Pharm. Bd. c. 1856, S. 57-69;" Chem. Centr. 1856, S. 897-899; 
Joum. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxx. 1857, S. 288-291; Ann. chim. 
phys. t. XLIX. 1857, pp. 372-374; Chem. Gaz. vol. xv. 1857, 
pp. 45, 46; Phil. Mag. (4) vol. xiii. 1857, pp. 183, 184; Amer. 
Joum. Sci. (2) vol. xxiii. 1857, p. 268. 

20. Ueber die Wirkung des Chlorzinks auf Hippursaure. Ann. 
Chem. Pharm. Bd. c. 1856, S. 69-75; Joum. prakt. Chem. 
Bd. LXX. 1857, S. 294-296; Chem. Centr. 1857, S. 48; Ann. 
chim. phys. t. XLix. 1857, pp. 374, 375. 

21. Ueber Bildung von krystallisirtem Rhodansilber. Ann. Chem. 
Pharm. Bd. c. 1856, S. 76, 77; Joum. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxx. 

1857, S. 245; Chem. Centr. 1857, S. 30; Ann. chim. phys. t. 
xiax. 1857, p. 375; Chem. Gaz. vol, xv. 1857, pp. 25, 26. 



144 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

22. Ueber das Huanokin, eine neue Base der Chinarinde; von 
A. Erdmann. Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. c. 1856, S. 346; Journ. 
prakt. Chem. Bd. Lxx. 1857, S. 423, 424; Chem. Centr. 1857, 
S, 551, 552; Ann. chim. phys. t. L. 1857, pp. 483, 484; Chem. 
Gaz. vol. XV. 1857, p. 365. 

1857 

23. Ueber die Einwirkung des Jodathyls auf wolframsaures Sil- 
beroxyd. Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. ci. 1857, S. 218, 219; CAew. 
Centr. 1857, S. 352; Chem. Gaz. vol. xv. 1857, p. 148. 

24. Tricapronylamin, ein Zersetzungsproduct des sauren schwef- 
ligsauren Oenanthol-Ammoniaks (gemeinsam mit C. Th. 
Petersen). Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. ci. 1857, S. 310-313; 
ibid. Bd. cii. 1857, S. 318, 323; Journ. prakt. Chem. Bd. Lxxi. 
1857, S. 171, 172, 490-492; Chem. Centr. 1857, S. 193-199; 
Chem. Gaz. vol. xv. 1857, pp. 181-186. 

. 25. Ueber eine neue Bereitungsweise des Anilins aus Nitrobenzol 
(gemeinsam mit F. Wohler). Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. cii. 
1857, S. 127, 128; Journ. prakt. Chem. Bd. lxxi. 1857, S. 254; 
Chem.. Centr. 1857, S. 560. 

26. Eine neue Zuckerpflanze. Aus einem Briefe des Dr. Gossmann 
zu Philadelphia an Hofrath Wohler. Ann. Chem. Pharm. Bd. 
civ. 1857, S. 335, 336; Journ. prakt. Chem. Bd. uxxm. 1858, 
S. 508. 

1858 

27. Beitrage zur Kenntniss des s.g. chinesischen Zuckerrohrs, 
Sorghum saccharatum, W. Journ. fiir Landioirthschaft, Got- 
tingen, N.F. Bd. i. 1858, S. 294-323. 

1861 

28. Contributions to the Knowledge of the Nature of the Chinese 
Sugar-cane, Sorghum saccharatum, W. A Paper read at the 
Annual Meeting of the New York State Agricultural Society 
at Albany, February, 1862. Trans. New York State Agric. 
Soc. vol. XXI. 1861, pp. 785-811; Albany: Printed by Charles 
van Benthuysen, 1862. 8vo, pp. 27; Johnson's New Univer- 
sal Cyclopaedia, vol. iv. 1878, pp. 639, 640. 

1862 

29. Analyses of Fine Salt (Boiled), from Saginaw, Michigan, and 
Hocking Valley and Mason City, Ohio. 1861. Report of the 



OF CHAKLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 145 

Salt Company of Onondaga, Syracuse, 1862, p. 7. Analyses of 
Ashton Salt and of Onondaga Factory-Filled Salt. Ibid. p. 17, 

30. Report on the Chemical Composition of the Brines of Onon- 
daga, New York. Syracuse, December 3, 1862. 12mo, pp. 11. 
Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt 
Springs. Assembly, State of New York, Document No. 70. 
February 12, 1863, pp. 27-30; Senate, State of New York, 
Document No. 89. March 20, 1863, p. 43; Amer. Journ. Sci. 
(2) vol. XL. 1865, p. 47; Geological Survey of Canada, 1863-66. 
Ottawa. 1866, pp. 267, 270. 

1863 

31. Composition of the Brines taken at the different pump houses 
on the 5th of July, 1862, at Syracuse; from the various wells 
at Saginaw, in October, 1862; and calculations concerning 
the relative quantities of salt which result by the evapora- 
tion of Brine from different districts at Syracuse, and from 
the different works and wells at Saginaw. Senate Report, 
State of New York, Document No. 89. March 20, 1863, pp. 
20-22; Legislature, State of Michigan, House Document No. 
37. 1865, pp. 5, 6; Geol. Survey Michigan, vol. ni. 1873- 
1876, pp. 181-185, 194-196 ; Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey, No. 
330, 1908, p. 141. 

1864 

32. Report on the Manufacture of Solar Salt from the Brines of 
the Salt Springs of Onondaga. Syracuse, December 1, 1863. 
Published at Syracuse, by Truair, Smith & Miles, January, 
1864. 8vo, pp. 26. Geological Survey of Canada, 1866-1869. 
Montreal, 1870, pp. 231-238. 

33. Contribution on the Manufacture and Refining of Cane- 
Sugar. Syracuse, New York: Holman, 1864. 8vo, pp. 12. 
Chemical News, London, vol. xi. 1865, pp. 26-28, 51-53. 

1865 

34. Notes on the Manufacture of Sugar in the Island of Cuba. 
Syracuse: The Journal Book and Job Office, 1865. 8vo, pp. 
16. Chemical News, London, vol. xi. 1865, pp. 26-28, 51-53. 

1866 

35. Report to the State Superintendent of the Salt Springs of 
Onondaga, New York. Syracuse, January 9, 1866. Annual 
Report of the Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs. 



146 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

Assembly, State of New York, Document No. 19. January 17, 
1866, pp. 29-31. 

36. Contribution to the Chemistry of the Mineral Springs of 
Onondaga, New York. Syracuse, February, 1866. Syracuse: 
The Journal Book and Job OflBce, 1866. 8vo, pp. 22. Amer. 
Journ. Sci. (2) vol. xm. 1866, pp. 211-218, 368-375; Zeit. 
Anal Chem. Jahrg. vi. 1867, S. 223-225. 

1867 

37. On the Rock-salt Deposit of Petite Anse: Louisiana Rock- 
salt Company. Report of the American Bureau of Mines. New 
York, January 4, 1867. 8vo, pp. 35, 2 plans. Smithsonian 
Contributions to Knowledge, 248 (1872), vol. xxiii. 1881, pp. 
14-20, plans. 

38. Report to the Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs 
on the Rock-salt Deposit upon Petite Anse Island, La. Syra- 
cuse, N.Y., January 8, 1867. Annual Report of the Superin- 
tendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs. Assembly, State of 
New York, Document No. 75. January 10, 1867, pp. 29-31. 

39. Contribution to the Chemistry of Brines. Amer. Journ. Sci. 
(2) vol. XLiv. 1867, pp. 77-87; Trans. New York Acad. Sci. 
vol. rx. 1889, p. 43 ; Dana's System of Mineralogy, 6th ed., 
1892, p. 156 ; Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey, No. 32, 1886, p. 
35; ibid. No. 330, 1908, pp. 141, 185, 186. 

1868 

40. Report to the Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs 
on the Salt Resources of Goderich, Canada, etc. Syracuse, 
January 11, 1868. Annual Report of the Superintendent of 
the Onondaga Salt Springs. Assembly, State of New York, 
Document No. 19. January 14, 1868, pp. 13-15, 29, 36, 37, 
40; Report of Progress, 1866-69, Geological Survey of Canada, 
Montreal, 1870, pp. 219, 220. 

41. Report on the Salt Resources of Goderich, Province of 
Ontario (Canada West). Syracuse, N.Y., January 16, 1868. 
8vo, pp. 18. Report of Progress, 1866-69, Geological Survey of 
Canada, Montreal, 1870, pp. 221-244, passim; Rapport des 
Operations, 1866-69, ibid. pp. 242, 243, 255, 261-263. 

1869 

42. Cheese as Food. Paper read at the Annual Meeting of 
the American Dairymen's Association at Utica, N.Y., January 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 147 

12, 1870. Fifth Annual Reft. Amer. Dairym. Assoc. 1869-70, 
pp. 115-119; Trans. Hamp. Agric. Soc. 1871, pp. 40-45. 

43. Salt and its Uses in Agriculture. A Lecture delivered at the 
Public Winter Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Agriculture at Pittsfield, December 7, 1869. Agric. of Mass. 
1869, pp. 18-40. 

44. The Blowpipe Manual. By Theodor Scheerer. Translated by 
William S. Clark. Revised by Charles A. Goessmann. 
Amherst: Storrs & McCloud. 1869. 12mo, pp. viii, 84. 

1870 

45. Contributions to the Chemistry of Common Salt: with par- 
ticular reference to our home resources. A Paper read before 
the National Academy of Sciences, Northampton meeting, 
August 31, 1869. Amer. Journ. Sci. (2) vol. xlix. 1870, pp. 
78-89. 

46. Report on the Production of Beet-Sugar as an Agricultural 
Enterprise in Massachusetts. Agric. of Mass. Supp. 1870, pp. 
12-48; Eighth Report Mass. Agric. College, 1871, pp. 44-80, 
4 plates; American Chemist, vol. i. 1871, pp. 381-387, 399- 
404; Sugar Cane, Manchester, England, vol. iii. 1871, pp. 
257-263; Scientific American, vol. xxiv. 1871, pp. 231-232; 
Amherst Record, April 12, 1871; Alta Commercial, April 26, 
1871; N.Y. World, April 5, 1871; Fourth Report Nebraska 
Board of Agric. 1873, pp. 85-120. 

1871 

47. Notes on Saline Deposits. American Chemist, vol. i. 1871, p. 
442: Kainit. Amherst Record, March 29, 1871. 

48. On Stassfurt Potash-Salts as Fertilizers. American Chemist, 
vol. 11. 1871, pp. 5-7; Agric. of Maine, 1871, pp. 344-351; 
Amherst Record, April 19, 1871. 

49. Report on the Chemical Composition of some Dairy Products 
(milk, butter and cheese). Trans. Hamp. Agric. Soc. 1871, 
pp. 34-45; Agric. of Mass. Abstr. 1871, pp. 305-317. 

1872 

50. Report on Sugar-Beets Raised upon the College Farm. Ninth 
Report Mass. Agric. Coll. 1872, pp. 32-63; Amer. Chem. vol. 
II. 1872, pp. 341-343, 378-383, 413-416; Sugar Cane, vol. iv. 
1872, pp. 367-371, 469-473; The Grocer, London, May 11, 



148 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

1872, p. 441: reprinted. New York: S. Angell, 1872. 12mo, 
pp. 35; The Sugar Beet, Philadelphia, vol. i. 1880, pp. 6, 7. 

51. Notes on Sugar-Beets for the Manufacture of Sugar. Amer- 
ican Chemist, vol. iii. 1872, pp. 11, 12, 64-66. 

52. Historical Notes on the Progress of the Sugar-Beet Cultiva- 
tion for the Manufacture of Sugar within the United States. 
Amer. Chem. vol. in. 1872, pp. 18, 19; Sugar Cane, vol. iv. 

1872, pp. 513-516; Johnson's New Universal Cyclopaedia, vol. 
IV. 1878, pp. 632-638, 2 figures. 

53. Abstracts and Notices of Papers in 'Wittstein's Viertel- 
jahresschrift fiir praktische Pharmacie,' Bd. xxi. 1872. 
American Chemist, vol. ii. 1872, pp. 393, 394. 

54. Abstracts and Notices of Papers in 'Wittstein's Viertel- 
jahresschrift flir praktische Pharmacie,' Bd. xxi. 1872. 
American Chemist, vol. iii. 1872, pp. 74-76. 

1873 

55. Report of the Chemical Department, Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College. Tenth Annual Report, 1873, pp. 54, 55. 

56. Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Tenth Report Mass. Agric. 
Coll. 1873, pp. 58-84; Mass. Ploughman, March 15, 22, 29, 
and April 5. 1873; Hitchcock' s Geology of New Hampshire, 
vol. I. 1874, pp. 554-558; Baird's Ann. Rec. Sci. & Ind. 1873, 
pp. 418, 419: reprinted under the title, 'On the Fertilization 
of Farm Lands with Reference to Commercial Fertilizers.' 
Read at the Annual Meeting of the New York State Agricul- 
tural Society at Albany, January 22, 1873. Journ. New York 
State Agric. Soc. January and February 1873; Trans. New 
York State Agric. Soc. vol. xxxii. 1873, pp. 254-265; Amer. 
Chem. vol. iv. 1873, pp. 139-142, 180-185; Sugar Cane, vol. 
VI. 1874, pp. 12-20, 62-78; Albany, N.Y.: Van Benthuysen, 

1873. 12mo, pp. 26. 

57. Statement concerning an examination of a sample of soil sent 
by J. Sterling Morton ... of Nebraska. Fourth Report 
Nebraska State Board of Agric. 1873, pp. 388-390. 

58. On Some Home Resources of Fertilizers — with particular 
reference to Nitrogen Plant-Food. A Lecture delivered at the 
Public Winter Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Agriculture at Fitchburg, December 3, 1873. Agric. of Mass. 
1873, pp. 112-132; Amherst Record, December 24, 1873; Mass. 
Ploughman, March 28, 1874; Report of the Commissioner of 
Agriculture for 187^, pp. 398-400; New Hampshire Agric. 
1875, pp. 297-312. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 149 

59. Experiments in the Cultivation of the Sugar-Beet Root in 
the State of New York. Trans. New York State Agric. Soc. 
vol. XXXII. 1873, pp. 163-169. 

60. First Annual Report of the State Inspector of Fertilizers. 
Read at Boston, February 4, 1874 (reviewed by Prof. A. 
Stbckhardt of Tharandt, Saxony). Agric. of Mass. 1873, pp. 
352-374; Agric. of Maine, 1875, pp. 226-228; Baird's Annual 
Record of Science and Industry for 1875, pp. 381, 382. 

1874 

61. Report on Experiments with Sugar-Beets. Eleventh Report 
Mass. Agric. Coll. 1874, pp. 42-52; Report of the Commissioner 
of Agriculture for 1873, pp. 307-309: reprinted under the title, 
'Experiments on the Cultivation of the Sugar Beet.' Amer- 
ican Chemist, vol. iv. 1874, pp. 282-286; Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 
1876, pp. 177, 204. 

62. On the Best Mode of Subduing and Utilizing for Tillage the 
Salt-Marshes in this State, after they are Drained. Read at 
the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Agriculture at Boston, February 3, 1875. Agric. of Mass. 1874, 
pp. 328-342; Sd. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, p. 226. 

63. Second Annual Report of the State Inspector of Fertilizers. 
Read at Boston, February 4, 1875. Agric. of Mass. 1874, pp. 
351-393; Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1875, 
p. 507; Baird's Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1876, 
pp. 372-375. 

64. Abstracts and Notices of Papers in * Witts tein's Viertel- 
jahresschrift fur praktische Pharmacie,' Bd. xxii. 1873. 
American Chemist, vol. iii. 1873, pp. 466, 467. 

65. Abstracts and Notices of Papers in ' Wittstein's Vierteljahres- 
schrift fiir praktische Pharmacie,' Bd. xxii. 1873. American 
Chemist, vol. iv. 1873, pp. 37, 38. 

1875 

66. Paper on Commercial Fertilizers (being an abstract of official 
reports for the years 1873 and 1874). Twelfth Report Mass. 
Agric. Coll. 1875, pp. 66-76. 

67. The Sources of Salt, with particular reference to our Home 
Resources. American Grocer, New York, March 20, 1875. 

68. On the Manufacture of Salt. American Grocer, April 3, 1875. 

69. Coarse, Common Fine, and Dairy Salt. American Grocer, 
April 10, 1875. 



150 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

70. Dairy Salt. American Grocer, April 24, 1875; Sci. Farmer, 
vol. I. 1875, pp. 13, 14. 

71. What Plants Feed On. I. (Notes from Professor Goessmann's 
Lectures. The nine articles under this heading were reported 
by E. H. Libby, co-editor of the Scientific Farmer). Sd. 
Farmer, vol. i. 1875, pp. 1, 2; U. pp. 15, 16; III. p. 30. 

72. Percentages of the more Essential Elements in some of the 
Common Crops. Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1875, p. 3. 

73. Chemistry of Fertilization (Notes from Professor Goess- 
mann's Lectures). Sci.Farmer, vol. 1. 1875, pp. 29, 30; II. p. 41. 

74. What Plants Feed On. IV. The Sources of Nitrogen Plant 
Food (Notes from Professor Goessmann's Lectures). Sci. 
Farmer, vol. i. 1875, p. 42; V. p. 53. 

75. Potash Salts (Abstract of Lecture). Sci. Farmer, vol. 1. 1875, 
pp. 53, 54. 

76. What Plants Feed On. VI. Potash as Plant Food (Notes from 
Professor Goessmann's Lectures). Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1875, 
pp. 65, 66. 

77. What Plants Feed On. VII. The Phosphates (Notes from 
Professor Goessmann's Lectures). Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1875, 
p. 77. 

78. Second Report on the Salt-Marshes above the Mouth of 
Green Harbor River, in the Township of Marshfield, Ply- 
mouth County, Massachusetts. Read at the Annual Meeting 
of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture at Boston, 
February 2, 1876. Agric. of Mass. 1875, pp. 238-248. 

79. Third Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1875, pp. 293-343; Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, pp. 139, 
150. 



1876 

80. Report on Work in Chemical Department, Massachusetts 
Agricultural College (including report of D. P. Penhallow). 
Thirteenth Annual Report, 1876, pp. 52-63. 

81. What Plants Feed On. VIII. The Phosphates. 2 (Notes from 
Professor Goessmann's Lectures). Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, 
p. 89. 

82. What Plants Feed On. IX. Lime — in Plants — in Soils. 
Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, pp. 101, 102. 

83. Analysis of the Onion. A Contribution from the Chemical 
Laboratory of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Sci. 
Farmer, vol. i. 1876, p. 116; Mass. Ploughman, September 9, 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 151 

1876; Pharm. Journ. Trans. (3) vol. xviii. 1887, pp. 77, 78; 
Journ. Chem. Soc. London, vol. Lii. 1887, p. 1137. 

84. Cooked vs. Raw Corn. Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, p. 121. 

85. On Special Fertilization. Mass. Ploughman, June 17, 1876. 

86. Contribution to the Chemistry of American Grape Vines. 
Mass. Ploughman, June 24, 1876. 

87. Special Fertilizers. Contributions from the Chemical Labo- 
ratory of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Mass. 
Ploughman, July 15, 1876. 

88. Composition of Cheese. Analyses of Whole Milk, Skim-Milk, 
and Oleomargarine Cheese. Article I. Mass. Ploughman, 
July 29, 1876. 

89. Influence of Special Fertilizing Materials (Notes from Pro- 
fessor Goessmann's investigations. E. H. Libby, reporter). 
Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, p. 161. 

90. Influence of Special Fertilization. II. (Notes from Professor 
Goessmann's investigations. E. H. Libby, reporter). Sd. 
Farmer, vol. i. 1876, pp. 178, 179. 

91. Urinary Secretions. A Contribution from the Chemical 
Laboratory of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Mass. 
Ploughman, August 12, 1876; Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, p. 232. 

92. Mineral Constituents of Urine (herbivorous animals). Mass. 
Ploughman, August 19, 1876; ibid. August 26, 1876. 

93. Influence of Special Fertilizers. Plaster and Magnesia (Notes 
from Professor Goessmann's investigations. E. H. Libby, 
reporter). Sci. Farmer, vol. i. 1876, p. 191. 

94. Grasses from Germany presented to the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College. Letter from Heinrich Keller of Darmstadt 
(translated by C. A. Goessmann). Mass. Ploughman, Novem- 
ber 18, 1876. 

95. Article on Fertilizers. Johnson's New Universal Cyclopaedia, 
vol. 11. New York, 1876, pp. 75, 76. 

96. Third Report on the Improvement of Salt-Marshes. Read at 
the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Agriculture at Boston, February 6, 1877. Agrie. of Mass. 
1876, pp. 219-225. 

97. Fourth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1876, pp. 241-279; Sd. Farmer, vol. ii. 1876, p. 87. 



1877 

98. Report of the Chemical Department, Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College. Fourteenth Annual Report, 1877, p. 30. 



152 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

99. Is it Butter? (cited in reply of E. H. Libby to H. A. Mott). 
Sci. Farmer, vol. n. 1877, p. 6. 

100. German Forest Seeds. Mass. Ploughman, April, 1877. 

101. Chemistry in Fruit Culture (strawberries and cherries). Mass. 
Ploughman, April 21, 1877. 

102. Chemistry in Fruit Culture (plums, pears, apples, etc.). Mass. 
Ploughman, May 5, 1877. 

103. Letter to the Editor, on How to make Manure. Daily Fredo- 
nian. New Brunswick, N.J., May 16, 1877. 

104. Recent Experiments with Sugar-cane in Louisiana. Mass. 
Ploughman, June 9, 1877; Amherst Record, September 19, 
1877. 

105. Composition of Cheese. Analyses of Whole Milk and Skimmed 
Milk Cheese. Article II. Mass. Ploughman, June 30, 1877. 

106. Letter to E. H. Libby, on the Transformation of Potash in the 
Soil. Sd. Farmer, vol. ii. 1877, pp. 142, 143. 

107. Application of Night-soil. Agric. of Mass. 1877, pp. 192, 193. 

108. Fourth Report on the Improvement of the Salt-Marshes in 
the Town of Marshfield. Read at Boston, February 5, 1878. 
Agric. of Mass. 1877, pp. 253-257. 

109. Fifth i^nual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1877, pp. 313-342. 

1878 

110. Contribution to the Chemistry of the American Grape-vine. 
Read before the American Chemical Society at New York, 
March 7, 1878. Fifteenth Report Mass. Agric. Coll. 1878, pp. 
39-54; Baird's Ann. Rec. Sci. & Ind. 1878, pp. 551, 552; Proc. 
Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. ii. 1879, pp. 35-50. 

111. On Experiments with Sugar-beet Roots. Mass. Ploughman, 
January 19, 1878. Read April 4, 1878. Proc. Amer. Chem. Soc. 
vol. II. 1879, pp. 56, 57. 

112. Recent Experiments with Sugar-cane in Louisiana. Mass. 
Ploughman, February 9, 1878. 

113. Contributions from the Agricultural Laboratory. (Analyses 
of onions, urinary secretions, mineral constituents of urine, 
Owasco gypsum, cheese.) Read September 6, 1877. Proc. 
Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. i. pt. 2, 1878, pp. 60-66. 

114. Chemistry in Fruit Culture. On the Growth and Composition 
of the Concord Grape. Mass. Ploughman, March 30, 1878. 

115. On Some Experiments with Wild Varieties of Grape-vines. 
Mass. Ploughman, May 18, 1878. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 153 

116. Influence of Girdling the Vines on the Growth of the Grapes. 
Mass. Ploughman, July 27, 1878; Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. 
vol. I, 1879, pp. 428, 429. 

117. Chemistry in Fruit Culture (apples and pears). Mass. Plough- 
man, August 24, 1878. 

118. Chemistry in Fruit Culture (cranberries). Mass. Ploughman, 
September 28, 1878; Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. 1. 1879, pp. 
425-428. 

119. Analyses of Phosphate of Lime. Scientific Farmer, vol. iii. 
1878, p. 142. 

120. Article on Salt (including sea-water, rock-salt, brines, coarse 
salt, and common fine salt or boiled salt). Johnson's New 
Universal Cyclopaedia, vol. iv. New York, 1878, pp. 45-48. 

121. Experiments with Corn of Various Kinds; Nitrate of Soda 
as a Source of Nitrogen for Plant-growth. Agric. of Mass. 
1878, pp. 78-80. 

122. Fifth Report on the Improvement of the Salt-Marshes in the 
Town of Marshfield. Read February 4, 1879. Agric. of Mass. 

1878, pp. 353-357. 

123. Sixth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1878, pp. 310-348. 

1879 

124. Report on Early Amber Cane. To the Directors of the Massa- 
chusetts Experiment Station. Sixteenth Report Mass. Agric. 
Coll. 1879, pp. 29-41, 1 plate; Amer. Journ. Sci. (3) vol. xvii. 

1879, p. 488; Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 
1881, Washington, 1882, pp. 486-489, pi. xxi. 

125. Report on the Percolated Waters of the Lysimetre. Sixteenth 
Report Mass. Agric. Coll. 1879, pp. 51-53. 

126. Sugar Beet and Beet Sugar. Mass. Ploughman, May 31, 1879. 

127. Remarks on the Sugar Beet, before the Berkshire Farmers' 
Institute at Lee, June 11, 1879. Berkshire Courier, June 18, 
1879. 

128. Experiments with Strawberries. Mass. Ploughman, July 19, 
1879; Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. i. 1879, pp. 423-425. 

129. Chemistry in Horticulture. Address before the Worcester 
County Horticultural Society, February 13, 1879. Mass. 
Ploughman, July 26, 1879. 

130. Report on Recent Experiments with Sugar-cane in Louisiana. 
Read April 4, 1878. Proc. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. ii. 1879, pp. 
52-56. 



154 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

131. Examination of the Minnesota Early Amber Cane. Journ. 
Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. i. 1879, pp. 44-50; Mass. Ploughman, 
March 22, 1879. 

132. On Experiments with Fertilizers upon Sugar-cane, at Calumet 
Plantation, Bayou Teche, La. Read before the American 
Chemical Society at New York, October 2, 1879. Journ. 
Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. i. 1879, pp. 416-420: reprinted under 
the title, ' Sugar Manufacture from Sugar-cane in Louisiana.' 
Mass. Ploughman, August 23, 1879. 

133. Contribution from the Chemical Laboratory of the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College (sugar in corn-stalks and 
melons). Read before the American Chemical Society at 
New York, October 2, 1879. Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. i. 
1879, pp. 420-422; Mass. Ploughman, April 19, 1879; Oester- 
reich. landw. Wochenbl. 5 Jahrg. 1879, Nr. 32, S. 344; Ceritr. 
Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg, ix. 1880, S. 122-124; Journ. Chem. Soc. 
London, vol. xxxviii. 1880, p. 594. 

134. Contribution to the Chemistry of Fruit Culture. Read before 
the American Chemical Society at New York, October 2, 
1879. Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. i. 1879, pp. 423-429. 

135. Analysis of two Intestinal Calculous Concretions of the Horse. 
Read before the American Chemical Society at New York, 
October 2, 1879. Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. i. 1879, 
p. 430. 

136. The Relative Value of Several Varieties of Corn for Feeding 
Purposes. A Lecture delivered at the Public Winter Meeting 
of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture at Green- 
field, December 4, 1879. Agric. of Mass. 1879, pp. 221-256, 
figures; Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. ii. 1880, pp. 7-12. 

137. Contributions to the Chemistry of Fruit-Culture (conjointly 
with S. T. Maynard). Agric. of Mass. 1879, pp. 344-368, 
figures. 

138. On the Cultivation of the Sugar-Beet for the Manufacture of 
Sugar (being a review of earlier investigations). Agric. of 
Mass. 1879, pp. 378-402; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. viii. 

1879, S. 816, 817; Journ. Chem. Soc. London, vol. xxxviii. 

1880, p. 418. 

139. Sixth Report on the Improvement of the Salt-Marshes in the 
Town of Marshfield. Read February 3, 1880. Agric. of Mass. 
1879, pp. 290-292. 

140. Seventh Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1879, pp. 307-340. 



OF CHAKLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 155 

1880 

141. Sugar Beet or Sorghum. Springfield Union, January 7, 1880; 
Springfield Republican, January 8, 1880. 

142. Contributions to the Examination of Eastern, Western, and 
Southern Corn. Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc. vol. ii. 1880, pp. 
7-12. 

143. Oleomargarine as an Article of Food. Letter of Charles A. 
Goessmann to the United States Dairy Company, March 20, 
1880; Report of the Board of Health, City of New York, 1881, 
p. 74; Bull. U.S. Dept. of Agric. Div. Chem. No. 13, 1887, pp. 
19, 21 ; Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts 
to the Legislature upon Oleomargarine, Senate Document No. 
140, April, 1888, pp. 79, 80; Address of James F. Babcock, 
before the Committee on Agriculture of the Massachusetts 
Legislature, January 24, 1890, p. 6. 

144. Atmospheric Fertilizers. Agric. of Mass. 1880, pp. 127, 128. 

145. The System of Preserving Green Food in Silos. A Lecture 
delivered at the Public Winter Meeting of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Agriculture at Southborough, December 2, 
1880. Agric. of Mass. 1880, pp. 156-170; New Hampshire 
Agric. 1880, pp. 139-152. 

146. Seventh Report on the Improvement of the Salt-Marshes in 
the Town of Marshfield. Read February 1, 1881. Agric. of 
Mass. 1880, pp. 195, 196. 

147. Eighth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1880, pp. 217-245. 

1881 

148. Report of Chemical Department, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, Eighteenth Annual Report, 1881, pp. 22, 23; Agric. of 
Mass. 1880, pp. 140, 141. 

149. On Ensilage. A Paper read at the Meeting of the Hampshire 
Farmers' Institute at Amherst, March 12, 1881. N.E. Home- 
stead, March 19, 1881. 

150. Letter on the Production of Seed Sugar Beets of Superior 
Quahty, April 25, 1881. The Sugar Beet, vol. ii. 1881, p. 37. 

151. Inquiry touching the Cause of the Peach Yellows. Agric. of 
Mass. 1881, pp. 84, 85. 

152. Restitution as appUed to Vegetable Growth; Sources of Pot- 
ash. Agric. of Mass. 1881, pp. 143, 144. 

153. Ninth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1881, pp. 333-360. 



156 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

1882 

154. Report of Chemical Department, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. Nineteenth Annual Report, 1882, pp. 22, 23. 

155. An Agricultural Experiment Station for Massachusetts. 
Statement of Charles A. Goessmann before the Committee 
on Agriculture of the Massachusetts Legislature. Mass. 
Ploughman, March 4, 1882. 

156. On Mineral Constituents in Plant Growth. A Paper read 
before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Boston, 
March 18, 1882. Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. 1882, pp. 110-123; 
Agric. of Mass. 1882, pp. 430-444 : read also at the Annual 
Meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural 
Science at Montreal, August 21, 1882. Proc. Soc. Prom. 
Agric. Sci. vol. i. 1882, pp. 58-63; Montreal Daily Witness, 
August 21, 1882. 

157. Analysis of Eel-grass. Republican Standard, New Bedford, 
July 13, 1882. 

158. On Muriate of Potash as an Insecticide; On Feeding Apple 
Trees; On Cattle Commissioners and Cattle Interests. N.E. 
Homestead, July 15, 1882. 

159. Observations regarding the Yellows of the Peach. Read at 
Montreal, August 21, 1882. Proc. Soc. Prom. Agric. Sci. vol. i. 
1882, pp. 63-66; Montreal Daily Witness, August 21, 1882; 
Houghton Farm Expt. Dept. ser. iii. nos. 1 and 2, pp. 29, 30. 

160. The Influence of Chemistry on the Development of a Rational 
System of Stock-Feeding. A Paper read at the Public Winter 
Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture at 
Northampton, December 5, 1882. Agric. of Mass. 1882, pp. 
89-127; N.E. Homestead, December 9, 1882. 

161. Tenth Annual Report on Commercial Fertihzers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1882, pp. 345-382. 

162. First Report of the Director of the State Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station at Amherst. Agric. of Mass. 1882, pp. 405-418. 



1883 

163. Organization. Fodder Analyses, Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 1. July, 1883, pp. 15. 

164. Fertilizer Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 2. 
August, 1883, pp. 8. 

165. Fodder and Fertilizer Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 3. September, 1883, pp. 12. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 157 

166. Fodder and Fertilizer Analyses, Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 4. October, 1883, pp. 12, 

167. Fodder and Fertilizer Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 5. November, 1883, pp. 12. 

168. Scientific Stock Feeding. N.E. Homestead, November 24, 
1883. 

169. Fodder and Fertilizer Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 6. December, 1883, pp. 12. 

170. Eleventh Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1883, pp. 194-242. 

171. First Annual Report of the State Agricultural Experiment 
Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1883. 8vo, pp. 112, 4 diagrams. 
Agric. of Mass. 1883, pp. 259-368. 

172. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Kept. 
Board of Health, Lun. and Char, of Mass. Supp. 1883, pp. 149, 
150. 

1884 

173. Report of Chemical Department, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. Twenty-first Annual Report, 1884, pp. 35-39; Agric. 
of Mass. 1883, pp. 443-447. 

174. Observations in Regard to Insects Injurious to the Apple 
(S, T, Maynard); Experiments with Special Fertilizers in 
Fruit Culture; Experiments with Currants; Garden Crops; 
Fertilizer Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 7. 
March, 1884, pp. 12; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xiv. 1885, 
S. 67; Journ. Chem. Soc. London, vol. xLviii. 1885, p. 589. 

175. Fodder and Fodder Analyses; Valuation and Analyses of 
Fertilizers. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 8, April, 1884, 
pp. 12. 

176. Notes upon Insects Injurious to Farm and Garden Crops 
(S. T. Maynard); Fodder and Fodder Analyses; Fertilizer 
Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 9. May, 1884, 
pp. 12; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xiv. 1885, S. 281. 

177. Observations regarding the Vitahty of the Seed of Various 
Weeds, and the Causes of Certain Diseases of Grasses (S. T. 
Maynard) ; Notes on Feeding Experiments with Corn Ensi- 
lage; Fodder and Fodder Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 10. June, 1884, p. 12; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. 
XIV. 1885, S. 253, 254. 

178. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Corn Ensilage, contin- 
ued; Fodder and Fodder Analyses; Fertilizer Analyses. BulL 
Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 11. September, 1884, p. 12. 



158 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

179. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Gluten Meal as a Con- 
stituent of the Daily Diet of Milch Cows; Fodder and Fodder 
Analyses. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 12. October, 

1884, p. 12; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xiv. 1885, S. 287. 

180. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Pigs; Fertilizer Analyses. 
Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 13. November, 1884, 
p. 12. 

181. Twelfth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. of 
Mass. 1884, pp. 285-329. 

182. Second Annual Report of the State Agricultural Experiment 
Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1884. 8vo, pp. 166. Agric. of 
Mass. 1884, pp. 331-492. 

183. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health, Lun. and Char, of Mass. Supp. 1884, pp. 194- 
202. 

1885 

184. Report of Chemical Department, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. Twenty-second Annual Report, 1885, pp. 21, 22; 
Agric. of Mass. 1884, pp. 531, 532. 

185. Fodder and Fodder Analyses; Valuation and Analyses of 
Fertilizers. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 14. March, 

1885, pp. 12; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xv. 1886, S. 503. 

186. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows; Analyses of 
Fodder Articles; Fertilizer Analyses; Meteorological Sum- 
mary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 15. April, 1885, 
p. 12. Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xiv. 1885, S. 859. 

187. Fodder Analyses; Analyses of Garden Crops; Fertilizer 
Analyses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 16. July, 1885, p. 12. 

188. Fodder Analyses; Analyses of Fruits; Analyses of Weeds; Fer- 
tilizer Analyses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. 
Expt. Stat. No. 17. August, 1885, p. 12. 

189. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Pigs; Fodder Analyses; 
Fertilizer Analyses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. 
Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 18. October, 1885, p. 20. 

190. Rotation of Crops. A Lecture delivered at the Public Winter 
Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture at 
Framingham, December 2, 1885. Agric. of Mass. 1885, pp. 
124-150. Read at Providence, January 14, 1886. Agric. of 
Rhode Island, 1886, pp. 4-30. 

191. Thirteenth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. 
of Mass. 1885, pp. 321-364. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 159 

192. Third Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1885. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 141. 

193. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health, Lun. and Char, of Mass. Supp. 1885, pp. 166- 
173. 

194. Manual of Agriculture for the School, the Farm, and the Fire- 
side. By George B. Emerson and Charles L. Flint. Revised 
by Charles A. Goessmann. New York: Orange Judd Com- 
pany. 1885. 12mo, pp. iv, 284. 



1886 

195. Report of Chemical Department, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. Twenty-third Annual Report, 1886, pp. 23, 24. 

196. Results of Inquiries conducted by the Health Department of 
the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, relative to 
the quality of milk as produced in Massachusetts. Boston, 
February, 1886, passim. 

197. Valuation and Analyses of Fertilizers; Meteorological Sum- 
mary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 19. April, 1886, 
pp. 12. 

198. Fodder and Fodder Analyses; Fertilizers and Fertilizer 
Analyses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 20. May, 1886, pp. 12. 

199. Fodder Corn and Corn Ensilage; Fertilizers; Meteorological 
Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 21. June, 1886, 
pp. 12. 

200. Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows; Fodder and Fodder 
Analyses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 22. October, 1886, pp. 12. 

201. Objections to the Hatch Bill. Agric. of Mass. 1886, pp. 96, 97. 

202. Fourteenth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. 
of Mass. 1886, pp. 335-394. 

203. Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1886. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 136, 1 plate. Agric. of Mass. 
1886,, pp. 421-544. 

204. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1886, pp. 147-154. 

205. Address at the Dinner of the New York Farmers, New York, 
Thursday, January 20, 1887. Proceedings of the New York 
Farmers, 1887. 



160 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

1887 

206. On Rational Fertilization of Garden Crops and Fruits. A 
Paper read before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at 
Boston, March 5, 1887. Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. 1887, pp. 
171-183, 1 plate. 

207. Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials and 
Chemicals; Fodder and Fodder Analyses; Meteorological 
Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 23. March, 

1887, pp. 12. 

208. Suggestions upon Planting Trees and Small Fruits (S. T. 
Maynard) ; FertiUzer Analyses; Fodder and Fodder Analyses; 
Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 24. April, 1887, pp. 12; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xvii. 

1888, S. 355. 

209. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Pigs; Meteorological 
Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 25. July, 1887, 
pp. 16; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xvii. 1888, S. 259-262. 

210. Food and Fodder Analyses; Fertilizers and Fertilizer Analy- 
ses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 26. August, 1887, pp. 12. 

211. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows; Meteoro- 
logical Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 27. 
October, 1887, pp. 16; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xvii. 1888, 
S. 258, 259. 

212. The Hay-Field and English Hay. A Lecture delivered at the 
Public Winter Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Agriculture at Springfield, December 7, 1887. Agric. of Mass. 
1887, pp. 163-191; reprinted under the title, 'The Grass Crop 
and its Relation to Farming.' Read at Providence, February 
24, 1888. Agric. of Rhode Island, 1888, pp. 50-66. 

213. Fifteenth Annual Report on Commercial Fertilizers. Agric. 
of Mass. 1887, pp. 485-551. 

214. Fifth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1887. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 267, 4 plates, 4 plans, 2. 
maps. Agric. of Mass. 1887, pp. 555-802. 

215. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1887, pp. 185, 186. 

1888 

216. Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials and 
Chemicals; Analyses of Fertilizers; Fodder Analyses; Meteor- 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 161 

ological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 28. 
March, 1888, pp. 12. 

217. The Work of the Massachusetts State Experiment Station. 
Address deUvered at the Farmers' Meeting at Boston, April 
21, 1888. Mass. Ploughman, May 5, 1888. 

218. Report of Analyses of Commercial FertiUzers. Amherst, May 
14, 1888, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. 1888, pp. 564, 565. 

219. Fodder Analyses; Analyses of Roots; Meteorological Sum- 
mary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 29. June, 1888, 
pp. 12. 

220. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, June, 
1888, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. 1888, pp. 566, 567. 

221. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, July, 
1888, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. 1888, pp. 568, 569. 

222. Notes on Feeding Experiments with Pigs; Meteorological 
Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 30. August, 
1888, pp. 16. 

223. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, 
August, 1888, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. 1888, pp. 570, 571. 

224. On Commercial Fertilizers; Analyses of Commercial Fertiliz- 
ers and Manurial Substances. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 31. October, 1888, pp. 16. 

225. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, 
October, 1888, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. 1888, pp. 572, 573. 

226. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, 
November, 1888, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. 1888, pp. 574, 575. 

227. Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1888. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 264, 15 plates, 3 plans, 
2 maps. Agric. of Mass. 1888, pp. 413-658; Centr. Agrik.- 
Chem. Jahrg. xviii. 1889, S. 526-531. 

228. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Kept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1888, pp. 101, 102. 



1889 

229. Instructions to Manufacturers, Importers, Agents and Sellers 
of Commercial Fertilizers or Materials used for Manurial 
Purposes in Massachusetts. Amherst, Mass. February 1, 
1889, pp. 1. 

230. Record of Twelve Cows, which served for Experiments to 
ascertain the Cost of Feed for the Production of Milk; Ana- 
lyses of Fodder Articles; Meteorological Summary. Bull. 



162 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 32. February, 1889, pp. 12; 
Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xviii. 1889, S. 719; Re-port of the 
Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, 1889, pp. 520-522; 
Journ. Chem. Soc. London, vol. lviii. 1890, p. 192. 

231. On Commercial Fertilizers. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 33. March, 1889, pp. 12. 

232. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, April, 
1889, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1889, pp. 245, 246. 

233. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, May, 
1889, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1889, pp. 247, 248. 

234. Department of Vegetable Physiology (J. E. Humphkey); 
Creamery Record of the Station during the years 1887 and 
1888; Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers; Meteoro- 
logical Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 34. June, 
1889, pp. 16; Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, 1889, pp. 520-522. 

235. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, July, 
1889, pp. 8. Agric. of Mass. App. 1889, pp. 251-254. 

236. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, 
August, 1889, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1889, pp. 255, 256. 

237. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, Sep- 
tember, 1889, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1889, pp. 257, 258. 

238. Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows; Meteorological Sum- 
mary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 35. November, 
1889, pp. 12. 

239. Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1889. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 333, 8 plates, 2 maps. Agric. 
of Mass. 1889. 

240. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1889, p. 135. 



1890 

241. Girdling theGrape Vine; by S. T. Maynard (analyses only). 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 7. January, 1890, p. 5. 
Analyses of Varieties of Sweet Corn. Ibid. p. 9. 

242. Some Suggestions Regarding the Question — How can we 
Improve in an Economical Way the Productiveness of our 
Farm-Lands? Analyses of Corn Ensilage; On Commercial 
Fertilizers; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 36. March, 1890, pp. 16; Report of the Secretary of 
Agriculture, Washington, 1890, p. 523. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 163 

243. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, May, 
1890, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1890, pp. 243, 244. 

244. Soil Tests with Fertilizers; by W. P. Brooks (analyses only). 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 9. May, 1890. 

245. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, June, 
1890, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1890, pp. 245, 246. 

246. Feeding Experiments with Lambs; Analyses of Fodder Arti- 
cles; Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers; Meteorological Sum- 
mary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 37. June, 1890, pp. 
16; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xxi. 1892, S. 96-100. 

247. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, 
August, 1890, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1890, pp. 249, 250. 

248. Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows; Analyses of Commer- 
cial Fertilizers. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 38. Sep- 
tember, 1890, pp. 12; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. Jahrg. xx. 1891, 
S. 390-392. 

249. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, 
November, 1890, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1890, pp. 255, 
256. 

250. Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1890. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 324, 4 plates, 2 maps. 
Agric. of Mass. 1890. 

251. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1890, p. 444. 



1891 

252. Report on Strength of Rennet (W. P. Brooks). Bull. Hatch 
Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 11. January, 1891, pp. 3-7, passim. 

253. The Ensilage Question. Baltimore Weekly Sun, February 21, 
1891. 

254. Circular on Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, March, 1891, 
pp.8. 

255. Treatment of Fungous Diseases (J. E. Humphrey) ; Meteoro- 
logical Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 39. April, 
1891, pp. 12, figures. 

256. Report of Analyses of Commercial FertiUzers. Amherst, April, 

1891, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1891, pp. 265, 266. 

257. Girdling Grapes; by Jabez Fisher (analyses only). Bull. 
Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 13. April, 1891, pp. 11, 12. 

258. Report of Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, May, 
1891, pp. 4. Agric. of Mass. App. 1891, pp. 267, 268. 



164 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

259. Fertilizers for Corn; by W. P. Brooks (analyses only). Bull. 
Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 14. May, 1891. 

260. Some Diseases of Lettuce and Cucumbers (J. E. Humphrey) ; 
Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers; Feeding Experiments 
with Steers; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. 
Expt. Stat. No. 40. July, 1891, pp. 16; Centr. Agrik.-Chem. 
Jahrg. XX. 1891, S. 665-671; Journ. fiir Landunrthschaft, Bd. 
XL. 1892, S. 193, 194. 

261. Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows; Analyses of Com- 
mercial Fertilizers; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. 
Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 41. September, 1891, pp. 16; Journ. 
fur Landunrthschaft, Bd. xl. 1892, S. 194. 

262. On the Breeding and Feeding of Swine. Agric. of Mass. 1891, 
pp. 208-214. 

263. Ninth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1891. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 352, 2 plates, 2 maps. 
Agric. of Mass. 1891. 

264. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachuestts. Kept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1891, pp. 697, 698. 



1892 

265. Analyses of Concentrated Feed Stuffs and Commercial Fer- 
tilizers. Amherst, January, 1892, pp. 8. 

266. Circular on Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, March, 1892, 
pp.8. 

267. Soil Tests with Fertilizers; by W. P. Brooks (analyses 
only). Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 18. April, 
1892. 

268. Analyses of Commercial FertiUzers and Manurial Substances. 
Amherst, May, 1892, pp. 4. 

269. Feeding Experiments with Milch Cows; Analyses of Fodder 
Articles. Bull. Mass. Agric, Expt. Stat. No. 42. June, 1892, 
pp. 16. 

270. Analyses of Commercial FertiUzers and Manurial Substances. 
Amherst, July, 1892, pp. 4. 

271. Winter Feeding Experiments with Lambs; Analyses of Com- 
mercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances; Meteorological 
Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 43. August, 
1892, pp. 12. 

272. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers. Amherst, September, 
1892, pp. 4. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 165 

273. Feeding Experiments with Steers; Meteorological Summary. 
Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 44. October, 1892, pp. 16. 

274. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances. 
Amherst, October, 1892, pp. 4. 

275. Home Raised Fodder Articles; Commercial Feed Stuffs. Bull. 
Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 45. November, 1892, pp. 15. 

276. Analyses of Commercial Fertihzers and Manurial Substances. 
Amherst, November, 1892, pp. 4. 

277. Cattle Foods. Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1892, p. 51. 

278. On the Work carried on at the Massachusetts State Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station during 1892. A Lecture delivered 
at the Winter Meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Agriculture at Spencer, December 8, 1892. Agric. of Mass. 
1892, pp. 212-218. 

279. Tenth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1892. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 354, 5 plates, 2 maps. 
Agric. of Mass. 1892. 

280. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Kept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1892, p. 651. 



1893 

281. Circular on Commercial Fertilizers (represents Bulletin 46). 
Amherst, March, 1893, pp. 8. 

282. Feeding Experiments with Pigs (J. B. Lindsey); Miscellane- 
ous Fodder Analyses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. 
Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 47. May, 1893, pp. 16. 

283. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances. 
Amherst, May, 1893, pp. 4. 

284. Analyses of Commercial Fertihzers and Fodder Articles; 
Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Siat. No. 

48. June. 1893, pp. 8. 

285. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Fodder Articles; 
Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 

49. August, 1893, pp. 8. 

286. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers; Miscellaneous Fodder 
Analyses; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 50. October, 1893, pp. 8. 

287. Eleventh Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1893. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 407, 5 plates. Agric. of 
Mass. 1893. 



166 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

288. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1893, pp. 687, 688. 



1894 

289. General Discussion on Commercial Fertilizers; Analyses of 
Fodder Articles. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 'No. 51. March, 
1894, pp. 8. 

290. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers; Analyses of Fodder 
Articles; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 52. June, 1894, pp. 8. 

291. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances; 
Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 53. July, 1894, pp. 8. 

292. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances; 
Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 54. August, 1894, pp. 8. 

293. Statement of Publications, previous to the Establishment of 
U.S. Agricultural Experiment Stations, by C. A. Goessmann. 
Prepared for the Use of the Office of the U.S. Agr'l Experi- 
ment Stations. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 
Amherst, August, 1894, pp. 4. 

294. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances; 
Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. No. 
55. October, 1894, pp. 8. 

295. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers; Analyses of Fodder Arti- 
cles; Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 56. November, 1894, pp. 8. 

296. Experiments with the Horse Bean, Vetch and Similar Fodder 
Plants. Agric. of Mass. 1894, pp. 154, 155. 

297. Twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Control of the State 
Agricultural Experiment Station, at Amherst, Mass. 1894. 
Public Document No. 33. 8vo, pp. 487, 6 plates, 1 plan. Agric. 
of Mass. 1894. 

298. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1894, pp. 755, 756. 



1895 

299. Analyses of Human Food Articles (Oats) ; Analyses of Fodder 
Articles; Analyses of Manurial Substances; Trade Values; 
Meteorological Summary. Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. Stat. 
No. 57. March, 1895, pp. 8. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 167 

300. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances; 
Trade Values. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 30. June, 
1895, pp. 8. 

301. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances; 
Trade Values. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 31. July, 
1895, pp. 8. 

302. Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers and Manurial Substances; 
Trade Values. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 32. August, 
1895, pp. 8. 

303. Analyses of Manurial Substances sent on for Examination; 
Analyses of Licensed Fertilizers collected by the Agent of the 
Station during 1895. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 34. 
October, 1895, pp. 8. 

304. Agriculture in the Elementary Schools. Agric. of Mass. 1895, 
p. 46. 

305. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Kept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1895, pp. 683-685. 



1896 

306. Report of the Chemist. Eighth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. 

1896, pp. 111-162. 

307. General Discussion on, Commercial Fertilizers; Analyses of 
Fertihzing Materials; Observations regarding the Composi- 
tion of Paris Green; Observations concerning the Action of 
Muriate of Potash on the Lime Constituents of the Soil. Bull. 
Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 38. March, 1896, pp. 16. 

308. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 40. July, 1896, pp. 20. 

309. Analyses of Manurial Substances; Analyses of Licensed Fer- 
tilizers; New Laws for the Regulation of the Trade in Com- 
mercial Fertilizers in Massachusetts. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. 
31 ass. No. 42. October, 1896, pp. 31. 

310. The Grass Crop. Bulletins of the Massachusetts Board of 
Agriculture, published in Massachusetts Crop Reports, 1896. 
Agric. of Mass. 1896, pp. 249-263. 

311. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1896, pp. 644, 645. 

1897 

312. Report of the Chemist. Ninth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. 

1897, pp. 172-223. 



168 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

313. General Discussion on Commercial Fertilizers; Analyses of 
Fertilizing Materials sent on for Examination; New Fertilizer 
Law. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 45. March, 1897, 
pp. 16. 

314. On Field Experiments with Tobacco in Massachusetts. Bull. 
Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 47. April, 1897, pp. 31. 

315. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 48. July, 1897, pp. 24. 

316. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 49. November, 1897, pp. 24. 

317. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Kept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1897, pp. 581, 582. 

1898 

318. Report of the Chemist. Tenth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. 
1898, pp. 106-136. 

319. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 51. February, 1898, pp. 12. 

320. On the Value of Sulphate of Ammonia — a By-product of the 
New England Gas and Coke Ovens at Everett. Boston Journal, 
March 26, 1898, portrait; Mass. Ploughman, April 23, 1898; 
N.E. Farmer, April 23, 1898. 

321. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 54. July, 1898, pp. 24, 
1 plate. 

322. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 57. November, 1898, pp. 24. 

323. Report of Analyst of Milk for Western Massachusetts. Rept. 
Board of Health Mass. 1898, pp. 720, 721. 

1899 

324. Report of the Chemist. Eleventh Report Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. 1899, pp. 105-141. 

325. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 59. March, 1899, pp. 14. 

326. Alma Mater, Dum Vivimus Te Salutamus! A Bouquet of 
Souvenirs of Gottingen. 'Superior Scholarship.' American- 
German Review, New York, vol. i. 1899, p. 167, portrait. 

327. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 62. July, 1899, pp. 20. 

328. Letter from Munster, Germany, September 18, 1899. Aggie 
Life, vol. X. October 4, 1899, pp. 21, 22. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 169 

329. Letter from Gottingen, Germany, October 23, 1899. Aggie 
Life, vol. X. November 29, 1899, pp. 66, 67. 

330. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 63. November, 1899, pp. 26. 

1900 

331. Report of the Chemist. TwelfthReportHatchExpi. Stat. Mass. 
1900, pp. 108-122. 

332. Letter from Berlin, Germany, December, 1899. Aggie Life, 
vol. X. February 7, 1900, pp. 100, 101. 

333. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers; 
Instructions regarding Samples of Materials forwarded for 
Investigation; Discussion of Trade Values of Fertilizing 
Ingredients; Instructions to Manufacturers, Importers, 
Agents, and Sellers of Commercial Fertilizers. Bull. Hatch 
Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 65. March, 1900, pp. 14. 

334. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 68. July, 1900, pp. 28. 

335. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 70. November, 1900, pp. 26. 

1901 

836. Report of the Chemist. Thirteenth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. 1901, pp. 55-70. 

337. Analyses of Manurial Substances, of Paris Green and other 
Insecticides; Laws for the Regulation of the Trade in Com- 
mercial Fertilizers in Massachusetts. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. No. 74. March, 1901, pp. 16. 

338. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 75. July, 1901, pp. 24. 

339. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 77. November, 1901, pp. 30. 

1902 

340. Report of the Chemist. Fourteenth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. 1902, pp. 91-107. 

341. Analyses of Fertilizing Substances sent on for Free Examina- 
tion; Analyses of Paris Green; Contribution on the Treatment 
of Barnyard Manure with Absorbents (H. D. Haskins). Bull. 
Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 81. March, 1902, pp. 20. 

842. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 83. July, 1902, pp. 24. 



170 LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WRITINGS 

343. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 84. November, 1902, pp. 30. 

1903 

344. Report of the Chemist. Fifteenth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. 1903, pp. 9-25. 

345. Analyses of Manurial Substances; Discussion of Trade Values 
of Fertilizing Ingredients; Discussion on the Ash Analyses of 
Plants; Instructions regarding the Sampling of Materials sent 
on for Examination. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 89. 
March, 1903, pp. 15. 

346. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 90. July, 1903, pp. 30. 

347. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 92. November, 1903, pp. 36. 

1904 

348. Report of the Chemist. Sixteenth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. 1904, pp. 87-104. 

349. Analyses of Fertilizing Substances; Notes on Barn-yard 
Manure; Discussion of Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. 
Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. Mass. No. 95. March, 1904, pp. 18. 

350. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers; 
Market Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. Bull. Hatch Expt. 
Stat. Mass. No. 100. July, 1904, pp. 30. 

351. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers; 
Market Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. Bull. Hatch Expt. 
Stat. Mass. No. 102. December, 1904, pp. 40. 

1905 

352. Report of the Chemist. Seventeenth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. 1905, pp. 94-110. 

353. Index Number. Massachusetts State Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station. C. A. Goessmann, Director. Vol. 1-12. 1883- 
1894. Amherst, Mass. Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, 
1905. 8vo, pp. 44. 

354. Analyses of Fertilizer Substances and Discussion of Trade 
Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. No. 103. March, 1905, pp. 20. 

355. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers; 
Market Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. Bull. Hatch Expt. 
Stat. Mass. No. 104. July, 1905, pp. 28. 



OF CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 171 

356. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers; 
Market Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. Bull. Hatch Expt. 
Stat. Mass. No. 107. December, 1905, pp. 42. 

1906 

357. Report of the Chemist. Eighteenth Report Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. 1906, pp. 50-64. 

358. Analyses of Fertilizer Substances, Refuse Materials and Soils, 
of Paris Green and other Insecticides. Bull. Hatch Expt. Stat. 
Mass. No. 109. March, 1906, pp. 23. 

359. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers; 
Market Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. Bull. Hatch Expt. 
Stat. Mass. No. 111. July, 1906, pp. 28. 

1907 

360. Report of the Chemist. Nineteenth Report Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. 1907, pp. 65-81. 

361. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Licensed Fertilizers: 
Market Values of Fertilizing Ingredients. Bull. Hatch Expt. 
Stat. Mass. No. 113. January, 1907, pp. 30. 

362. Analyses of Manurial Substances and Soils; Discussion of 
Trade Values of Fertilizer Ingredients for 1907. Instructions 
regarding the Sampling of Materials to be forwarded for 
Analyses (with H. D. Haskins). Bull. Mass. Agric. Expt. 
Stat. No. 117. March, 1907, pp. 22. 



NOTICES OF CHARLES ANTHONY 
GOESSMANN 

Letter of Friedrich Wohler to Justus Liebig, 16 March 1857. Aus 
Justus Liebig's und Friedrich Wohler's Briefwechsel 1829-1873. 
Braunschweig 1888. Band ii. S. 39, 40.^ 

The Amherst Record of May 21, 1868. 

Courier and Union, Syracuse, N.Y., May 28, 1868. 

Central Demokrat, Syracuse, den 26ten Dezember 1868. 

Agriculture of Massachusetts for 1868-69, pp. 23-25, 118, 119, 122, 
123. By William S. Clark and Louis Agassiz. 

Address on American Contributions to Chemistry, at the meeting 
to celebrate the Centennial of Chemistry, at Northumberland, 
Penn., July 31, 1874. By Benjamin Silliman. American Chem- 
ist, vol. V. 1874, pp. 112, 113. 

Sixth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College, January 1869, p. 7. By William S. Clark. 

The Catholic World Magazine, vol. lxvi. March 1898, pp. 856-858, 
with portrait. 

Poggendorff's Biographisch-Literarisches Handworterbuch zur 
Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften, Bd. iii. 1898, p. 529. 
By H. Carrington Bolton. 

A Sketch of Charles A. Goessmann. By Charles S. Walker. The 
Springfield Union of June 30, 1900, p. 1, with portrait. 

Experiment Station Record, Washington, vol. xvili. 1907, pp. 
1101-1104. By Edwin W. Allen. 

Testimonial to Professor Goessmann, June 18, 1907. Address by 
Charles Wellington. Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural College, January 1908, pp. 56-60. 

1 ' As a teacher Wohler ranks with Liebig and BerzeHus. In a sense he 
was the greatest of the three. BerzeHus never had the opportunity to 
teach large numbers of students in his laboratory; and Liebig lacked the 
many-sidedness so characteristic of the Gottingen laboratory as long as it 
really was under Wohler's personal direction. One student might wish to 
work on organic chemistry, another on minerals, a third on metallurgy, 
a fourth on rare elements; let them all go to Wohler, and all, as well as 
the fifth or sixth, would find themselves in the right place.' (William 
Dittmar.) 



174 NOTICES 

A Tribute. By William H. Bowker. College and Alumni News, vol. 
V. 1907, pp. 47-49, with portrait. 

Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 
lege, January 1908, pp. 95-98 (passim), 113-115. By William P. 
Brooks. 

Twentieth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station, January 1908, pp. 5-9. By William P. Brooks. 

The Index of the Class of 1909. Dedicated to Charles Anthony 
Goessmann, with a tribute by Charles Wellington. (Vol. xxxix. 
pp. 8-11, with portrait.) 

The Springfield Republican of September 2, 1910, p. 11, with por- 
trait. 

The Springfield Union of September 2, 1910. 

The Amherst Record of September 7, 1910. 

Action of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. The College Signal, vol. xxi. 1910, pp. 5, 6. By WiUiam 
H. Bowker. 

Memorial Service. Addresses by Kenyon L. Butterfield, Charles 
Wellington, Winthrop E. Stone and Charles F. Chandler. The 
College Signal, vol. xxi. 1910, pp. 1, 4-7; The Springfield Union, 
October 12, 1910; The Springfield Republican, October 13, 1910. 

Nature, London, vol. lxxxiv. 1910, p. 370. 

Experiment Station Record, Washington, vol. xxiii. 1910, pp. 
401, 402. By Edwin W. Allen. 

The American Chemical Journal, vol. xliv. 1910, pp. 475-477. 
By Joseph S. Chamberlain. 

Proceedings of the American Chemical Society, vol. xxxii. 1910, 
pp. 131, 132. By Homer J. Wheeler. 

Southern Ruralist, December 1, 1910, p. 16. By Horace E. Stock- 
bridge. 

Forty-eighth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, part 1, January 1911, pp. 14, 15. By Kenyon L. 
Butterfield. 

Twenty-third Annual Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
Experiment Station, January 1911, pp. 13, 14, 80-85, with por- 
trait. By Joseph B. Lindsey. 

Sketch of Dr. Goessmann. McEvoy Magazine, January 1911, pp. 
239-242, 286. By Thomas J. McEvoy. 

Historical Records and Studies of the United States Catholic His- 
torical Society, vol. vi. part 1, February 1911, pp. 131-159, with 
portrait. By Frederick Tuckerman. 



CHRONOLOGY 

1827. Born at Naumburg, Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, Ger- 
many, June 13. 

1832-36. Attended public and private schools in Naumburg. 

1836-42. At the Latin School in Fritzlar. 

1842-46. Apprenticed to his cousin Louis EUth, apothecary in 
Gudensberg, Hesse-Cassel, 28 March 1842 to March 
1846. 
1846. Passed examination as assistant in pharmacy, before 
theKurf : Hess: Ober-Medizinal-KoUegium zu Kassel, 
February 24. 

1846-47. Assistant to Julius Post, University Apothecary, Got- 
tingen, April 1846 to April 1847. 

1847-48. Assistant to Paul Diickeissen (Engel-Apotheke) , Mainz, 
Grand Duchy of Hesse, April 1847 to October 1848. 
1848. Received as a member of the Pius-Verein flir religiose 
Freiheit zu Mainz, April 5. 

1848-50. Assistant to Th. Jacobi, apothecary, Fulda, Hesse- 
Cassel, 1 October 1848 to 31 March 1850. 

1850. Entered the University of Gottingen at Easter, 27 
April 1850, matriculating in the philosophical faculty 
as a student of pharmacy — Joh. Karl Ludw. Gieseler, 
Prorector. 

1851. Appointed assistant in analytical chemistry, under 
Professor Staedeler, October 18. 

1852. Passed examination as apothecary in Hessen-Kassel 
(Kurhessen), before the Kurf: Hess: Ober-Medizinal- 
KoUegium, March 23. 

1852. Appointed second assistant in the Chemical Labora- 
tory, Gottingen, June 8, 

1852. Presented a dissertation, Ueber die Bestandtheile der 
Canthariden, and on December 27 received the degree 
of Doctor of Philosophy. 

1853. Inaugural-Dissertation printed, a synopsis of which, 
entitled Ueber die Natur des Fettes der Canthariden, 
appeared the same year in Wohler, Liebig und Kopp's 
Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie. 



176 CHRONOLOGY 

1854. Published the results of his research on the conversion 
of thialdine into leucin. Habilitationsschrift. 

1854. Read a paper before the meeting of German Natural- 
ists and Physicians at Gottingen, in September, en- 
titled Ueber Leucin und Essigsdure-Aldehyd. 

1855. Appointed Privatdocent in chemistry and pharmacy 
for one year, rn the Philosophical Faculty, Gottingen, 
February 24. 

1855. Succeeded Heinrich Limpricht as first assistant in the 
Chemical Laboratory, Gottingen. 

1855. Elected a corresponding member of the Physico- 
Medical Society of Erlangen, Bavaria, May 19. 

1856. Appointed Privatdocent in the Philosophical Faculty 
of the University of Gottingen, venia legendi, January 
29. 

1856. Attended the annual meeting of the German Natural- 
ists and Physicians at Vienna, September 16-24. 

1857. Granted a three years' leave of absence by the Univer- 
sity, at the close of the winter semester, in order to 
study the chemical industries of France, England, and 
the United States. 

1857. Sailed from Bremen for New York, May 12. 

1857. First paper on sugar. Published in Wohler und Liebig's 
Anncden. 
1857-60. Chemist and General Superintendent of the Eastwick 
Brothers' Steam Sugar Refinery, Philadelphia. Re- 
signed December 1, 1860. 

1860. Visited Cuba for the purpose of studying the agricul- 
tural industries of the West Indies, especially the manu- 
facture and refining of sugar. 3 December 1860 to 21 
March 1861, 

1861-68. Chemist to the Salt Company of Onondaga, Syracuse, 
New York, April 1861 to December 1868. 

1861. Elected an honorary member of the Chemical Society 
of Union College, October 21. 

1862. Address on the Nature of the Chinese Sugar-cane, deliv- 
ered before the New York State Agricultural Society, 
in February. 

1862. Married October 22, at Syracuse, New York, Mary 

Anna Clara Kinny. 
1862, Visited Saginaw, Michigan, in October, to examine the 

brines and saline deposits. 
1862. First paper on brines and salines. 



CHRONOLOGY 177 

1862-64. Taught Chemistry at the Rensselaer Polytechnic In- 
stitute at Troy, New York. Elected Professor of 
Chemistry and Physics at the Institute, July 9, 1863. 

1863. Elected a corresponding and honorary member of the 
New York State Agricultural Society, in January. 
Date of certificate, February 12. 

1863. Elected a corresponding member of the BufiFalo Soci- 
ety of Natural Sciences, May 7. 

1865. Elected a corresponding member of the New York 
Academy of Sciences (formerly the Lyceum of Natm-al 
History), October 2. 

1866. Appointed Consulting Correspondent of the American 
Bureau of Mines, New York, March 10. 

1866. Commissioned by the Board of Experts of the Ameri- 
can Bureau of Mines to visit Louisiana and investigate 
the rock-salt deposit of Petite Anse Island, New Iberia, 
on Vermilion Bay, October 30. 

1867. Made two visits to Canada, in June and December 
respectively, for the purpose of ascertaining the extent 
of the saline resources and the quality of the brines, 
especially at Goderich, 

1868. Elected Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College, May 12, and entered upon his 
duties in December. 

1868. Admitted as a citizen of the United States of America, 
October 23. 

1869. Elected a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, Salem meeting, August 18. 

1869. Address on the Chemistry of Common Salt, delivered be- 
fore the National Academy of Sciences, Northampton 
session, August 31. 

1869. Address on Salt and its Uses in Agriculture, delivered 
before the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 
December 7. Goessmann's earliest paper on fertiliza- 
tion. 
1870-74. Experiments on the cultivation of the sugar beet. 

1873. Appointed Chemist of the State Board of Agriculture 
of Massachusetts, February 4. 

1873. Enactment of the First Fertilizer Law in the United 
States, passed and approved May 26. Of this law 
Goessmann was the prime author. 
1873-1910. Ex officio a member of the State Board of Agriculture 
and State Inspector of Fertilizers, May 26, 1873. 



178 CHRONOLOGY 

1874. Member of the General Committee of American Chem- 
ists, chosen to commemorate the one hundredth anni- 
versary of the discovery of Oxygen by Joseph Priestley. 

1874-80. Systematic investigation of the chemical and physical 
condition of the salt marshes of the State. 

1875. Elected a Fellow of the American Association for the 

Advancement of Science, Detroit meeting, August 17. 

1876. Original member of the American Chemical Society 
and elected Vice-President, November 2. 

1880. Elected State Agricultural Chemist of North Carolina 
and Director of the Experiment Station at Chapel 
Hill, March 2. 
1880. Original member of the Society for the Promotion of 
Agricultural Science, August 24. 

1880-81. Chairman of the Association of Agricultural Chemists 
— later the Association of Official Agricultural Chem- 
ists of the United States. 

1881-82. Member of the Committee appointed by the National 
Academy of Sciences to investigate the Scientific and 
Economic Relations of the Sorghum-sugar Industry in 
the United States. 

1881-82. Vice-President of the American Chemical Society. 

1882. Elected a member of the Virginia Historical Society, 
June 16. 

1882-95. Director and Chemist of the Massachusetts Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station. Appointed November 9, 
1882. 

1883. Member of the American Metrological Society. 
1883-1904. Analyst to the State Board of Health of Massachu- 
setts. 

1885. Delegate to the First Convention of Agricultural Col- 
leges and Experiment Stations, at Washington, July 
8 and 9. 

1886. Elected Chemist to the Bay State Agricultural Society, 
March 1. 

1887. President of the American Chemical Society. Elected 
December 3, 1886. 

1888-95. Member of the Board of Control of the Massachusetts 
Agricultural Experiment Station. 

1889. Elected a corresponding member of the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society, April 6. 

1889. Degree of Doctor of Laws conferred by Amherst Col- 
lege, July 2. 



CHRONOLOGY 179 

1889. Foreign member of the Committee on Plant Food, 
Allgemeine land- und forstwirthschaftliche Ausstel- 
lung, Wieu 1890. 
1892. Appointed a member of the Advisory Council on Chem- 
istry of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the Colum- 
bian Exposition, December 12. 
1892-95. Treasurer of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station. 

1894. Member of the American Lavoisier Committee for the 
erection in Paris of a monument to Antoine-Laurent 
Lavoisier. 

1895. Appointed Honorary Director of the Experiment Sta- 
tion, Massachusetts Agricultural College, April 16. 

1898. Elected a member of the American Statistical Associa- 
tion, January 21. 
1899-1900. In August 1899 Dr. Goessmann, accompanied by his 
family, revisited the Fatherland after an absence of 
forty years, remaining abroad until the following June. 
He went also as an honorary representative of the 
United States Department of Agriculture to the Ger- 
man Empire, and as a delegate of the American Chem- 
ical Society to the unveiling of the statue of Antoine- 
Laurent Lavoisier in Paris. 
1899-1910. Member of the Council of the American Chemical 
Society. 

1900. Elected a member of the Washington Academy of 
Sciences, January 9. 

1900. Member of the American Academy of Political and 
Social Science. 

1907. Resigned the Professorship of Chemistry in June, re- 
tiring on a pension from the Carnegie Foundation. 

1907. Presented by his pupils with a stained -glass window, 
June 17, commemorative of forty years of service at 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 

1907. Resigned as Chemist of the Experiment Station, Mass- 
achusetts Agricultural College, and appointed Consult- 
ing Chemical Expert, July 1. 

1908. Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, June 16. 

1910. Portrait of Dr. Goessmann presented to the College by 

the Alumni, June 21. 
1910. Died at Amherst, September 1. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Agardh, Karl A., 15. 

Agassiz, Louis, 1, 3, 30, 31, 32, 33, 
36, 37, 173. 

Allen, Edwin W., 173, 174. 

Alsberg, Meinhard, 34, 125. 

American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, 98. 

American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, 98, 177, 178. 

American Bureau of Mines, 22, 177. 

American Chemical Society, 98, 99, 
100, 178, 179. 

Amherst College, 29, 99, 135, 178. 

Arago, Frangois, J. D., 139. 

Arfvedson, Johann A., 15. 

Association of Agricultural Chemists, 
97, 178. 

Atkinson, Edmund, 12, 143. 

Atwater, Wilbur O., 36. 

Austro-Prussian War, 128. 

Babcock, James F., 155. 

Baer, Karl Ernst von, 3. 

Baeyer, Adolf von, 133. 

Baker, George M., 52. 

Barker, George F., 34. 

Bartling, Friedrich G., 6, 115, 116, 

134. 
Baum, Fraulein Augusta, 117. 
Baum, Wilhelm, 122. 
Beilstein, Friedr. K., 121, 128. 
Bell, Jacob, 140. 
Berthelot, Marcellin, 11, 143. 
Berthold, Arnold A., 122. 
Berzelius, Jons J., Baron, 15, 16, 17, 

122 173. 
Bialloblotzky, Fr., 114. 
v. Bobers, 117. 
Bode, Dr., 116. 

Boedeker, Karl, 112, 117, 120, 122. 
Bohtz, August W., 6. 
Bolton, H. Carrington, 34, 173. 
Booth, James C, 113, 114, 116, 118, 

123, 135. 
Borke, Baron von, 2. 



Botanical Garden at Gottingen, 116, 

128; atMunchen, 116. 
Boussingault, Jean-Baptiste, 11, 40, 

53, 54, 139. 
Bowker, William H., 103, 174. 
Brewster, Sir David, 140. 
Brinsmade, Thomas C, 25. 
Brongniart, Adolphe T., 15. 
Brongniart, Alexandre, 15. 
Brooks, William P., 81, 83, 85, 86, 

88, 90, 163, 164, 174. 
Buchner, Ludwig A., 17. 
Buff, Heinrich, 112. 
Bunsen, Robert W., 17. 
Butterfield, Kenyon L., 104, 174. 

Cahours, Auguste, 11. 

Caldwell, George C, 12, 14, 15, 100, 

143. 
Carmichael, Henry, 130. 
Chadboume, Paul A., 37. 
Chamberlain, Joseph S., 174. 
Chandler, Charles F., 8, 14, 15, 25, 

34, 99, 100, 104, 174. 
Chandler, William H., 34. 
Chemical Laboratory, Gottingen, 

6-8, 10, 116, 117, 119-121, 124, 

127, 128, 133, 173, 175, 176. 
Chevreul, Michel E., 139. 
Child, Edwin B., 103. 
Clark, William S., 14, 28. 29, 30, 31, 

33, 36, 39, 40, 41, 60, 113, 116, 

134, 135, 147, 173. 
Conradi, Johann W. H., 122. 
Cook, George H., 20, 22, 96. 
Crookes, Sir William, 139. 
Cummings, Rev. Dr., 105. 

Darmstadt, Matth., 129, 131. 
Davis, Charles G., 36. 
Davy, Sir Humphry, 5, 15. 
Dean, John, 15, 100. 
Despretz, Cesar M., 114. 
Deutsche Naturforscher und Aerzte, 
meeting at Gottingen, 9, 142, 176; 



184 



INDEX 



at Vienna, 9, 176; at Karlsruhe, 

114. 
Deville, H. Sainte-Claire. 17. 112. 113. 
Dillon, John C. 46. 
Dirichlet. See Lejeune-D. 
Dittmar, William, 173n. 
Dollinger, Ignatius, 3. 
Dollinger, Johann von, 3. 
Doltz, Architect, 117. 121. 
Drowne, Charles, 26. 
DUckeissen, Paul, 175. 
Dumas, Jean-Baptiste. 8, 11, 139, 

142. 

Eastwick Brothers' Sugar Refinery, 
18, 20, 111, 113, 115, 176. 

Eastwick, Edward P., 15, 16. 

Eastwick, Joseph H., 15, 16, 100. 

Eastwicks, the, 113, 114, 118, 123. 

Egleston, Thomas. 34. 

Elderhorst, William, 25. 

Elith, Louis C, 175. 

Emerson, George B.. 159. 

Engelhardt. Francis E., 113. 116, 
119. 130. 

Engelmann, George, 1. 

Erdmann, A.. 144. 

Erdmann. Otto L., 17, 140. 

Erlangen, University of. 8, 176. 

Esmark, Jens. 15. 

Faber, Rev. Frederick W., 104. 
Fabian. Chr.. 116. 
Faraday, Michael, 106. 
Fehling, Hermann von, 17. 
Fertilizer inspection, 35, 58-63, 177. 
Fisher, Jabez, 163. 
Fittig, Rudolf, 116, 121, 128. 133. 
Flint, Charles L.. 36, 41, 60, 159. 
Flugel, Carl F. A., 129. 
Fownes, George, 12. 
Francis, William, 139, 140. 
French Academy of Sciences, 8, 11. 
Frerichs, Friedrich T., 11. 
Fresenius, Carl R., 140. 

Garrigues, Samuel S., 14, 22, 113, 

114, 116. 
Gay-Lussac, Joseph L. G., 139. 
Genth, Friedrich A., 1. 
German Naturalists and Physicians, 

meeting of, 9, 114, 142, 176. 
Geuther. Anton, 14, 112, 116. 117, 

118, 121, 122, 124, 125. 



Gieseler, Joh. K. L., 175. 
Gillingham, C, 113, 116. 
Goessmann, Agnes R., 26. 
Goessmann, Charles Anthony — 
birth, 4; 

early education, 4, 5; 
enters the University of Gottin- 

gen, 5; 
receives his degree, 7; 
pricatdocent at Gottingen, 8; 
arrival in America, 18; 
chemist at Philadelphia, 18-20; 
visits Cuba, 20; 
chemist to the Salt Company of 

Onondaga, Syracuse, 20-21; 
visits Michigan, 22; 
visits Louisiana, 22; 
visits Canada, 22-23; 
elected professor of chemistry and 
physics at the Rensselaer Poly- 
technic Institute, Troy, 25; 
marriage, 26; 

elected professor of chemistry at 
the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, 28; 
appointed chemist of the Massa- 
chusetts Board of Agriculture, 
35; 
appointed State Inspector of Fer- 
tilizers, 35; 
appointed director and chemist, 
Massachusetts Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station, 43; 
chosen president of the American 

Chemical Society, 98; 
receives degree of LL.D. from Am- 
herst College, 99; 
visit to Europe, 100; 
resigns professorship of chemistry, 

101; 
death, 104. 
Goessmann, Charles I., 26. 
Goessmann, Heinrich, 2, 3, 4, 5, 127, 

134. 
Goessmann, Helena Henslinger-Boe- 

diger, 4. 
Goessmann, Helena T., 26. 
Goessmann, Henry E. V., 26. 
Goessmann, Joseph, 1, 2. 
Goessmann, Louis E., 26. 
Goessmann, Mary F., 26. 
Goessmann, Mrs. (Mary A. C. 

Kinny), 26, 176. 
Goessmann, Philip, 2. 



INDEX 



185 



Gottingen, University of, 5, 6, 14- 

16, 99-103, 133, 175, 176. 
Goodman, Richard, 41. 
Graham, Thomas, 122. 
Grandeau, Louis N., 114. 
Graz, University of, 2. 
Greifswald, University of, 121. 
Griepenkerl, Friedrich, 100. 
Grouven, Hubert, 55, 72. 
Gurley, William, 26. 
Guyot, Arnold, 1. 
Guzman. See Goessmann. 

Hague, James D., 15, 99, 100. 
Haidinger, Wilhelm, 9. 
Hanssen, Georg, 122. 
Hansteen, Christoffer, 15. 
Harris, Elijah P., 116. 
Hart, Thomas E., 123. 
Haskins, Henri D., 169, 171. 
Hausmann, Johann F. L., 6, 121, 122. 
Heintz, Wilhelm H., 10. 
Henneberg, Johann Wilhelm J., 19, 

72, 115, 139. 
Henslinger-Boediger, Helena, 4. 
Herzogliche Technische Hochschule, 

Braunschweig, 27, 123. 
Hilgard, Eugene W., 23, 96. 
Hisinger, Wilhelm, 15, 16. 
Hitchcock, Edward, 37. 107. 
Hofmann, August W. von, 3n, 17, 

129. 
Hubner, Hans, 128, 133. 
Hughes, Angela, 26. 
Hughes, Archbishop, 26. 
Humphrey, James E., 43, 162, 163, 

164. 
Hungerford, Edward, 14, 100. 
Hunt, T. Sterry, 24. 
Hurtzig, 112. 

Jacobi, Th., 175. 
Jena, University of, 124. 
Johnson, Samuel W., 58, 96. 
Joy, Charles A., 14, 34, 116, 119, 
121, 124, 125. 

Kaiser, Fraulein, 2. 
Kane, Sir Robert, 140. 
Kedzie, Robert C, 41, 96. 
Keller, Heinrich, 151. 
Kinny, Edward, 26. 
Knowlton, William, 36. 
Kobell, Franz von, 9. 



Koch, Robert, 37. 

Konigliche Gesellschaft der Wissen- 

schaften, Gottingen, 112, 122. 
Kopp, Hermann, F. M., 112, 139. 
Kornrumpf, Frau. 130, 132, 134, 

135. 
Kreuzhagen, Frau, 126. 
Kreuzhagen, Fraulein Anna, 126. 
Kuhlmann, Frederic, 114. 
Kurf. Hess. Ober-Medizinal-Kolle- 

gium, 7, 175. 

Langensalza, battle of, 128. 
Lantzius-Beninga, B. S. H., 6. 
Laurent, Auguste, 12. 
Lavoisier, Antoine L., 53, 100, 179. 
Lawes, Sir John B., 40, 41. 
Ledoux, Albert R., 97. 
Lehmann, Karl G., 124. 
Lejeune-Dirichlet, G., 122. 
Leopold Academy, 119. 
Lesquereux, Leo, 1. 
Leydolt, Franz, 9. 
Libby, Edgar H., 150, 151, 152. 
Liebig, Justus, Baron von, 5, 9, 16, 

17, 53, 54, 114, 11,9, 133, 139, 173. 
Limpricht, Heinrich, 8, 11, 112, 114, 

116, 117, 121, 122, 176. 
Lindsey, Joseph B., 43, 165, 174. 
Little, George, 116. 
Loring, George B., 36. 
Lyceum of Natural History, New 

York, 177. 

Magee, James F., 15, 100, 113. 

Magnus, Gustav, 17. 

Mallet, John W., 14, 100. 

Manross, Newton S., 135. 

Marburg, University of, 3, 6, 127, 
134. 

Marsh, Ebenezer, 14. 

Martius, Karl F. P. von, 9, 116. 

Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
28-33. 177, 179. 

Massachusetts Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, 42-43, 70-96, 178- 
179. 

Massachusetts Experiment Station, 
39-42. 

Massachusetts State Board of Agri- 
culture, 30, 33, 35-37, 59-62, 99, 
177. 

Massachusetts State Board of Health, 
98, 177. 



186 



INDEX 



Maynard, Samuel T., 39, 43, 65re, 

154, 157, 160, 162. 
McEvoy, Thomas J., 174. 
Meissner, Georg, 122. 
Merkel, Burgomaster, 133. 
Miles, Manly, 41, 43, 70. 
Mitscherlich, Eilhard, 10, 17. 
Morgan, J. Pierpont, 99. 
Morton, J. Sterling, 148. 
Mott, Henry A., 152. 
Mtinchen, University of, 133. 
Mumm, Baron von, 2. 

Nason, Henry B., 14, 15, 25, 100. 
National Academy of Sciences, 33, 

97, 147, 177, 178. 
Newberry, John S., 24. 
Newman, Cardinal, 104. 

New York Academy of Sciences, 24, 

98, 177. 

New York State Agricultural So- 
ciety, 19, 47, 144, 148, 176, 177. 

Nichols, James R., 59. 

Nickles, Jerome, 114. 

Niemann, A., 119. 

Nilsson, Sven, 15. 

North Carolina Experiment Station, 
97, 178. 

Novara, the, 120. 

Oersted, Hans C, 15. 
Oesterley, Carl, 117. 
Oken, Lorenz, 9n. 
Otto, Friedrich J., 122. 

Parkman, Theodore, 123. 
Peabody, Selim H., 39. 
Pelouze, Theophile J., 5, 139. 
Penhallow, David P., 38, 40, 69n, 

150. 
Petersen, Carl Th., 144. 
Pettenkofer, Max von, 17. 
Physico-Medical Society of Erlan- 

gen, 8, 176. 
Porter, Charles H., 22. 
Post, Julius, 5, 175. 
Pourtales, Frangois, Comte de, 1. 
Prescott, Albert B., 98. 
Priestley, Joseph, 178. 
Pugh, Evan, 14, 15, 41, 100, 116. 

Rammelsberg, Karl F. A., 17. 
Redtenbacher, Josef, 9. 
Regnault, Henri V., 159. 



Reichenbach, Karl, Baron von, 9. 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 

Troy, 25, 177. 
Retzius, Christian, 15, 16. 
Riemann, Bernhard, 122. 
Rinteln, 119. 

Ritter, Geh. Hofr. Heinrich, 7. 
Rose, Heinrich, 5, 17. 
Royal Society of Sciences, Gottingen, 

112, 122. 

Sainte-Claire Deville, Henri, 17, 
112, 113. 

Salt Company of Onondaga, Syra- 
cuse, 20-26, 176. 

Sargent, Charles S., 36. 

Sartorius von Waltershausen, W., 
6, 118, 121. 

Schafhautl, Carl E. von, 9. 

Scheerer, Theodor, 33, 147. 

Scheven, H., 12, 142. 

Schleiden, Matthias, J., 116. 

Schleswig-Holstein War, 128. 

Schonbein, Christian F., 17. 

Schonlein, Johann L., 9. 

Schrotter, Anton, 9. 

Schwanert, Franz Hugo, 115, 116. 

Schwarzenberg, Oberbergrath, 123. 

Senarmont, Henri de, 139. 

Seyfert, Dr., 124. 

Shepard, Charles U., 135. 

Silliman, Benjamin, 173. 

Societas Physico-Medica Erlangen- 
sis, 8, 176. 

Society for the Promotion of Agri- 
cultural Science, 98, 178. 

Specht, C, 140. 

Spiegelberg, Otto, 114. 

Spratt, Mrs. Agnes R., 26. 

Staedeler, Georg A. K., 6, 7, 175. 

Stearns, William A., 28. 

Steflens, Heinrich, 15. 

Stenhouse, John, 11. 

Stephani, Herr, 113, 114, 116. 

Stewart, A. P. S., 116, 123. 

Stockbridge, Horace E., 174. 

Stockbridge, Levi, 36, 39, 40, 41, 
42. 

Stockhardt, Julius A., 35, 149. 

Stohmann, Friedr. C. A., 72. 

Stone, Winthrop E., 104, 174. 

Storrs, Henry E., 131. 

Strassburg, University of, 133. 

Sturtevant, Joseph N., 36. 



INDEX 



187 



Taylor, Richard. 140. 
Taylor, William H., 69. 
Troost, Louis J., 114. 
Tuckerman, Frederick, 103, 174. 
Tubingen, University of, 133. 
Tuttle, David K., 15, 100. 
Tyndall, John, 140. 

Uslar, Louis von, 116, 121, 128, 
133. 

Virchow, Rudolf, 11. 
Vogel, August, 9. 

Wagner, Rudolf, 118, 122. 
Wagram, battle of, 2. 
Waldeck-Pyrmont, Prince of, 2. 
Walker, Charles S., 173. 
Waltershausen. See Sartorius vonW. 
Ward, Andrew H., 60. 
Weber, Wilhelm E., 6. 



Webster, Noah, 107. 
Weld, Mason C, 59. 
Wellington, Charles, 103, 104, 173, 

174. 
Werther, August F. G., 140. 
Weyman, George W., 14. 
Wheeler, Homer J., 103, 174. 
Wicke, Wilhelm, 112, 114, 117, 120, 

122. 
Wiggers, Heinrich A. L., 6. 
Wilder, Marshall P., 36, 37. 
Wohler, Friedrich, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 

14, 15. 16, 17, 19, 25, 27, 30, 44, 

101; letters of, 111-135, 139, 142, 

144, 173. 
Wohler, Frl. Helena, 100. 
Wohler, Frl. Sophia, 100. 
Wolff, Emil, 41, 72. 
Wrede, Ernst F., Baron, 15. 
Wiirzburg, University of, 3. 
Wurtz, Charles A., 9n, 139. 



